Religion 
Rationalized 




Class 73 X 3 7 g . 

Book. J^S . 

GoipgM 



CSHRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Religion Rationalized 



Religion Rationalized 



Intended as an introduction to the 
writings oj 

Emanuel Swedenborg 



BY 



HIRAM VROOMAN 




1918 

SAUL BROTHERS 
CHICAGO 



1&§. 



Copyrighted, 1918, by Hiram Vrooman 



MG-\ 1918 



©CLA501339 



, , v 



f 

4i0 I 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter I 
WHAT IS TRUTH? 

And observations on the following related subjects: "The 
Realm of Truth Located and De fined" "Quality," 
Method in Thinking" "A Bit of Preliminary Phil- 
osophy" "Relationship" "Immortality" "Divine 
Revelation" "The Lord Jesus Christ" "Mans 
Chief Interest" "The Fact of Reality" "Optimism" 
"Provision" "Spirit is Substance" "Psychology is 
Not Spiritual Truth" 

Chapter II 

TWO VAST AND LIMITLESS REALMS OF 
REALITY BUT RECENTLY DISCOVERED 

Chapter III 
A WAYSIDE TALK 

Consisting of observations on the following subjects: 
"Seeing for Oneself" "What is a Human Being?," 
"Analogy," "Regeneration and Degeneration," 
"Happiness and Suffering," "The Universal Good," 
"Right and Wrong, Good and Evil, Sin" 

Chapter IV 
THE OBSCURITY OF TRUTH 

Chapter V 
THE TEST QUESTION 



Chapter VI 

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE 
AMPLIFIED 

With sub-headings: "Son of Man" "The Second Com- 
ing of the Lord/' "War" "Forty" "Revelations 
Concerning Immortality" "The Holy City, New 
Jerusalem" 

Chapter VII 
THE GREATEST OF ALL GREAT MEN 



Religion Rationalized 

Chapter I. 
WHAT IS TRUTH? 

And observations on the following related subjects'. "The 
Realm of Truth Located and Defined/' "Quality" 
"Method in Thinking!' "A Bit of Preliminary 
Philosophy/' "Relationship/' "Immortality/' "Divine 
Revelation/' "The Lord Jesus Christ/' "Man's Chief 
Interest/' "The Fact of Reality/' "Optimism/' 
"Provision/' "Spirit is Substance/' "Psychology is 
not Spiritual Truth/' 

ON the morning of the day of the crucifix- 
ion, Pilate said to Jesus, "What is 
truth ?" 

Immediately preceding the historic ques- 
tion, Jesus had declared to Pilate: "To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I 
into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
the truth." — John 18:37. 

"The Truth" 

TRUTH ! Note well this word "truth" as 
PECULIARLY employed by Jesus, and note 



IO RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

the extraordinary tribute which He paid to 
that, WHATEVER IT IS, which the word 
stands for. 

Was Jesus acquainted with some REAL- 
ITY which He designated "the truth," or was 
He paying superlative tribute to some vague 
and indefinite generality? 

Unless we can acquire some definite and 
concrete knowledge concerning the reality 
represented by the word "truth" as Christ em- 
ployed it the purpose intended to be served 
by this book will have failed. 

Did Christ come into the world to bear wit- 
ness to the truth of the natural sciences? Evi- 
dently not. 

Did Jesus claim to be the original chemist, 
astronomer, geologist, economist? No. 

Was Jesus referring primarily to that truth 
which we call veracity, as distinguished from 
deceit and falsehood? No. 

What then was the reality, with which He 
was acquainted and to which His whole life 
had born witness which He called "the 
truth"? 

Can it be that there exists a distinctive 
realm of reality, a realm of phenomenal real- 
ity, the facts of which are distinctively and 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED II 

exclusively those of "the truth"— -of spiritual 
truth? Yes.— Yes! 

The first step which we will now take, in 
whatever contribution this book may make in 
rationalizing religion, will be to locate and 
define that particular realm of reality in 
which all facts ,are distinctively spiritual, and 
the knowledge of which facts is distinctively 
the understanding of TRUTH. Pilate's 
question, after centuries of baffled study, is 
answered in our time! 

The distinctive realm of reality of which 
truth is predicated will presently be defined 
and located. Some preliminary observations, 
however, will be helpful. 

Every scientist and intelligent man ac- 
knowledges that all human knowledge is capa- 
ble of classification. Certain kinds of knowl- 
edge, for instance, are classified under the 
terms mathematics, botany, statesmanship, 
medical science, and the like. There is no 
fact but what has its pigeon hole. Boundar- 
ies, as definite as the geographical ones which 
distinguish continents, nations, states and the 
like, also distinguish the areas of knowledge 
which go by the names of the various sciences, 
such as geology, astronomy, physics and the 



12 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

like. The knowledge of spiritual truth is like- 
wise to be distinguished from all other knowl- 
edges. 

The Realm of Truth Located and 
Defined 

That particular realm of reality, of phe- 
nomenal fact, which Christ referred to on the 
day of His crucifixion as that to which His 
whole life had borne witness, can be defined so 
simply and with so few words, that the reader 
is now cautioned — cautioned! . . . against 
passing this part hurriedly. 

Here it is. 

The realm of truth may be defined as quali- 
ties in the emotional states and thoughts of 
human beings— QUALITIES IN ' THE 
EMOTIONAL STATES AND 
THOUGHTS OF HUMAN BEINGS!! 

This is it. 

Here is the location. 

Here are the boundaries. 

Although limited by the boundaries estab- 
lished by these few and simple words: 
"QUALITIES in the emotional states and 
thoughts of human beings," the areas of real- 
ity within these boundaries will be found to 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 13 

contain unlimited fields for exploration, in- 
vestigation and study. 

The knowledge of truth is the knowledge 
of these human qualities, including, of course, 
their relationships to other things. It is noth- 
ing more and nothing less and nothing else. 

Quality 

The word "QUALITY" represents a cer- 
tain reality, even as it applies to material 
things, so important and estimable, as to de- 
serve rank in the highest aristocracy of words. 
As it applies to human character its position 
it yet more exalted, for the reason that if we 
could but distinguish the possible differences 
of quality in the emotional states and thoughts 
of men, we would see all of the differences be- 
tween any conceivable heaven on the one hand, 
and hell on the other. 

The difficulty in seeing and studying the 
different qualities, the good and evil qualities, 
the harmonious and antagonistic qualities, the 
constantly changing qualities for weal or woe, 
in human emotions and thoughts, is in finding 
the STANDARD OF VALUES in relation 
to which all values of a human life are to be 
measured. Suffice it to say, at this point: all 



14 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

definite and concrete knowledge of spiritual 
truth is nothing other than the knowledge of 
the different qualities in the emotional states 
and thoughts of human beings and in com- 
parison with a perfect quality or standard 
which will later be brought to light. 

Method of Thinking 

When Columbus discovered America he 
found a new region for exploration. When 
Marconi invented a mechanism which gave 
wireless telegraphy to the world, he demon- 
strated that he had correctly surmised the ex- 
istence of a new, or theretofore undiscovered, 
realm of reality which had invited him to the 
pursuit of his investigation and invention. 
Every known realm of reality, or any that is 
surmised to exist, is at once a challenge to in- 
tellectual initiative. Qualities in the emo- 
tional states and thoughts of men is a known 
realm of reality — they are a realm not simply 
surmised as existing, but one that is known to 
be. Scarcely more is known by the world at 
large about the particulars of it, however, than 
was known by Columbus about the particulars 
of the great continent which lay beyond the 
circumscribed landscape which he viewed 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED l£ 

from his vessel. This new realm of reality, 
the realm of human qualities, is challenging, 
beckoning to, inviting human intelligence to 
come to it for investigation and exploration 
to acquire such riches or values as such added 
knowledge may prove to be worth. 

Preparedness is as much a requisite in 
scientific discovery, geographical exploration, 
or spiritual study and investigation, as in war. 
METHOD, therefore, is as indispensable in 
penetrating the realm of spiritual truth as it 
was for Marconi to penetrate the electrical 
status of the spaces surrounding the earth in 
demonstrating the miracle of wireless tele- 
graphy; or as it is for an astronomer to make 
an intellectual round trip of a thousand mil- 
lion miles in safety; or for a geologist to go 
back a million years before his birth; or for 
a chemist to organize an army of inanimate 
soldiers for scientific conquests. Heretofore, 
method in spiritual investigation and thinking 
has been lamentably lacking in theology, and 
among the representatives of the different re- 
ligions and sects and denominations. This 
book is an attempt at pioneer work in the crea- 
tion of METHOD for acquiring distinctively 
spiritual knowledge — for ascertaining the 



16 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

facts of spirit, AS THESE EXIST IN THE 
NATURE OF THINGS. 

The stars existed in the nature of things be- 
fore the telescope was discovered, and the phe- 
nomena of earth crust formations were here 
before the science of geology appeared, and 
chemical relations between substances existed 
before any chemist made any practical use of 
any of them. And all these things existed in 
the nature of things. And, likewise, spirit ex- 
ists in the nature of things. Qualities in the 
emotional states and thoughts of human be- 
ings exist in the nature of things. Who dare 
say, in these times of startling discovery, that 
man is permanently barred from finding the 
method for discovering the facts of the spirit, 
facts concerning the destiny of man, concern- 
ing God, immortality, divine revelation, and 
other fundamental facts which are to be classi- 
fied as religious or spiritual? Who dare say 
then that the most fundamental of those things 
which now are, and have been, matters of re- 
ligious conviction, faith, hope, aspiration, may 
not become matters of definite and concrete 
knowledge? 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 17 

A Bit of Preliminary Philosophy 

Did you ever stop to think that in learning 
even the simplest things of ordinary knowl- 
edge, the general and universal method is to 
learn by first experiencing the effects of things 
in or upon oneself? Through the five doors 
of the natural senses the objects of the world 
enter the corridor of ones thoughts, and they 
there introduce themselves, they force an in- 
troduction, by means of inflicting one with ex- 
periences respectively distinctive, and thereby 
the person distinguishes them relatively. He 
extends to them such courtesies or considera- 
tion as he chooses according to his judgment 
or desire or necessity; but thus it is that knowl- 
edge of natural things comes into one's posses- 
sion. And, likewise, as will be shown in the 
following chapters, the method by which one 
learns of God is by first experiencing the ef- 
fects of Him in or upon himself, and then by 
perceiving that these effects are distinctively 
those from God. 

It ought to be remarked here that only a 
portion of a man's experiences are caused 
from without by worldly objects entering by 
the five ways of the senses. Some experiences 



l8 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

are caused from within by spiritual objects 
which impose thoughts and emotions by in- 
terior "influx." How otherwise account for 
the persistency of objectionable thoughts and 
feelings? A large portion of our emotions 
and thoughts are produced by an interior spir- 
itual environment by the method or by means 
of "spiritual influx." 

Relationship 

We will delve a little deeper in this bit of 
preliminary philosophy. RELATION- 
SHI P, as all know, means nothing less than 
that everything is affected by everything else. 
For instance, if any speck of dust should sud- 
denly become annihilated, the status of every- 
thing else in the universe would become some- 
what changed on that account. Any effect that 
is produced by one thing upon another, which 
one can detect, enables him to know something 
about one or both of the two objects. But a 
person can never detect any effect of one thing 
on another, except by his first becoming notice- 
ably affected by one or both of them. 

It is true, of course, that we do not detect, 
that is, take notice of the majority of the in- 
numerable effects produced in or upon us by 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 19 

outside agencies, such, for example, as by the 
atmospherical pressures upon our body or by 
every one of the hundreds of millions of other 
people in the world. They are too numerous. 
We would not have time, for one reason, to 
give even passing thought to every one of 
them. But, philosophically speaking, we 
know that it is conceptually possible to learn 
of anything that is related to us or that affects 
us, and to learn of it by the method of first 
noticing the effects which are the ultimation 
of its relationship. Therefore, if, in the na- 
ture of things, there is a God, we are forced 
to acknowledge that relationship exists be- 
tween Him and man. If, in the realm of re- 
ality, God is ; if God and man are two realities, 
the relationship between them means that they 
affect one another. Therefore, the method by 
which we should endeavor to acquire a knowl- 
edge of God is by detecting and noting and 
interpreting those distinctive experiences in 
our own lives, which can be established as ef- 
fects of His relations to us. This method will 
be in keeping with the manner of learning 
whatsoever we know about anything. We will 
show later that the effects produced by God in 
or upon us, those which can be detected and 



20 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

distinguished as such, and afterwards studied 
and interpreted, are those which bring to light 
contrasts and distinctions in the qualities of 
our emotional experiences and thinking. 

There has always been a class of agnostics 
who have affirmed that even if an infinite God 
exists we can not know it, for the "self evi- 
dent" and "sufficient" reason, as they say, that 
the finite mind can not comprehend the in- 
finite. The observation in the preceding para- 
graphs is a complete refutation of this pre- 
sumptuous assertion of agnostics. The finite 
mind can detect the effects in or upon itself 
of outside realities, even though they be the 
effects from the infinite. To be sure the fin- 
ite mind can not comprehend the infinite, but 
it can comprehend how it is being affected in 
some particulars by the infinite. The finite 
mind can not comprehend so much as a grain 
of sand, because infinitessimal things reside 
within even so small an object as a grain of 
sand. But when the grain of sand is blown 
into one's eye and he feels that particular ef- 
fect; or when it is utilized in the manufacture 
of glass which prevents the sand from being 
blown into one's eye, he learns a few things 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 21 

— — aww— wp i — — — p— i i. i . 1 . i ■ . , i , , ii i 1 1 i . . ' i .' i 'w i ii i i 1 1 1 — — — qw 

about the grain of sand which are true so far 
as they go. 

There must be a point of beginning in our 
learning about anything, and it is likewise so 
in our learning about God. We first learn a 
few things about God from effects which we 
first discover as being from Him in our ex- 
periences; and, thereafter, we find that the 
effects produced by Him in our lives or ex- 
periences are so numerous that we may con- 
tinue to grow in the knowledge of God 
throughout this life and then on forever. It 
will be shown further on that the particular 
effects of God in us, which can be distin- 
guished, are those by which the qualities of 
our emotional states and thoughts are changed 
and improved. Our emotional states are as 
real as sense impressions. They are matters of 
experience, and hence matters of definite 
knowledge to reside in the memory and to be 
used as materials for constructive thinking 
and reasoning. Enough for this bit of philos- 
ophy at this time. 

Immortality 

Before this great word IMMORTALITY 
all of us stand, at secret intervals, with fear 



22 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

and trembling. "If a man die shall he live 
again?" God and immortality are two of the 
several biggest words in the religious or the- 
ological vocabulary. Where can any intrinsic 
value be conceived of as existing in the litera- 
ture of any religion, or in the ecclesiasticism 
of any church, without its identity with the 
thought and hope of immortality? Therefore, 
is there a method for investigating the ques- 
tion of immortality? The pages which follow 
will present this method. For the preliminary 
purposes of this first chapter, however, a few 
simple observations upon the general subject 
will be sufficient. 

The question of immortality is primarily 
the question of what a man is potentially. 

The acorn is potentially an oak tree. The 
tadpole is potentially a frog. The caterpillar 
is potentially a butterfly. The babe is poten- 
tially a man. Do there exist within the man 
those potential emotions and thoughts which 
are to be the fruitage of a thousand years ex- 
perience, or of a million years? 

What is the nature, or what is the mechan- 
ism or composition, so to speak, of that sub- 
conscious region of a human being, which 
either does or does not qualify him for the con- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 23 

tinuation of life after the death of the body? 
If it should be in the nature of things that 
the composition and mechanism of a human 
being are such that he can not be annihilated, 
and that he must necessarily continue to live 
and to grow throughout eternity, then we 
might know that a thousand years from now, 
ten thousand years from now, every man will 
be experiencing thoughts and emotions differ- 
ent from any that are experienced now, and 
representing the ripe fruitage of all preceding 
growth and experience. Would it not seem as 
possible to find the trail of such discovery as 
it has been for the geologist to ferret out fairly 
accurately some of the earth's conditions of a 
general nature of a million years ago; or for 
the astronomer to tell of some of the general 
characteristics of the phenomenal facts on 
planets and stars thousands and millions and 
hundreds of millions of miles away? To what 
extent then is it possible to acquire a knowl- 
edge of those deep things which are at present 
only potential in man, but which, in hundreds 
or thousands of years, will be among his then 
conscious experiences? This would be, so far 
as it should go, knowledge of immortality . 



24 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

There is needed only the right method for 
penetrating and investigating, or studying the 
realm of human potentiality, to learn of con- 
crete facts concerning immortality, because 
human potentiality and immortality are the 
same thing. When we know that qualities in 
the emotional states and thoughts of men are 
the realm of truth, we have taken the first step 
in discovering the method for studying human 
potentialities. 

Divine Revelation 

The question of the existence of a DIVINE 
REVELATION is primarily the question of 
the existence of a spiritual light by which a 
man is enabled to see spiritual objects and 
realities — to recognize and distinguish the dif- 
ferences and the contrasts in the qualities of 
the emotional experiences and thoughts of 
human beings. 

If spiritual realities exist — if qualities in 
the emotional states and thoughts of men are 
many, are even opposites and antagonists, are 
of varying degrees, composing a vast and won- 
derful realm of phenomenal fact — then the 
probability is that PROVISION has been 
made to enable men to see them. This provis- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 2$ 

ion would be a light as distinctive as the light 
of the solar sun. (The potentialities of a man 
are as great and wonderful as a planet.) Men 
see the natural objects of the world by means 
of the light of the sun. When the sun goes 
down at night and is absent, then light dis- 
appears and the prevailing darkness creates a 
condition which prevents men from seeing 
material objects. The visible objects of the 
world at dawn declare the presence of light, 
and the light itself proclaims the sun to be 
its source. No worthy purpose can be served 
by my simply asserting that there is a divine 
revelation, and that it is to be found in the 
Bible. But if the contents of this book should 
awaken any of its readers at their spiritual 
dawn, and they should see for the first time a 
realm of spiritual objects by a light that most 
manifestly emanates from the Bible as its 
source, its purpose in respect to the ques- 
tion of a divine revelation will have been 
accomplished. 

The Lord Jesus Christ 

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. To say 
that Christ was divine; that he was the son of 
God; is scarcely more rational than the speech 



26 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

of a parrot unless behind these words there is 
understanding of some of the general distinc- 
tions between the Divine and the finitely hu- 
man. Without some essentially true concep- 
tions of Divinity all affirmations of belief in 
Divinity are of questionable value. Affirma- 
tions of this kind, without a foundation of 
spiritual knowledge, have lead to most fan- 
tastic speculations and irrational assertions 
and guesses. For instance, they have led to 
the belief in the absurdity that God and Jesus 
Christ are two infinite beings — as if it were 
possible in the nature of things for two In- 
finities to exist at the same time! And, again, 
by affirming that Christ is God, while think- 
ing of Him and describing Him as to his finite 
aspect, solely, they reduce the Infinite to the 
finite and thereby destroy all idea of infinity 
and remain in ignorance of the infinite and 
divine Being. That there is only one God, one 
infinite and divine Being and that He became 
incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ can 
be seen to be true only by the aid of that spir- 
itual light from Divine Revelation which, in 
revealing qualities in the emotional states and 
thoughts of men, shows that the Quality of 
the emotional states and thoughts of Christ 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 27 

was absolutely unique, perfect and Divine — 
was the Quality of God Himself — the very 
quality to be recognized as the STANDARD 
with which all other qualities in the realm 
of human emotions and thoughts are to be 
compared and judged. This subject will be 
pursued at length in succeeding chapters. 

Man's Chief Interest 

WHAT IS MAN'S CHIEF INTER- 
EST? Is there any special or particular in- 
terest which, in the nature of things, and on 
account of what is potential in man, could be 
truly said to be man's chief interest, in rela- 
tion to which the values of all other interests 
are to be estimated? 

If man is immortal his chief interest is 
something entirely different from what it is if 
he is only mortal. 

Immortality and mortality are TWO 
POINTS OF VIEW, as different as any two 
locations in the world that might be selected. 

These two points of view are those of re- 
ligion and science, respectively. 

Science defines man's chief interest from 
the point of view of mortality. The radius 
of its vision, from its point of view, circum- 



28 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

scribes the following chief interest: Man's 
physical and mental well being during his 
temporal (and ephemeral) stay in this world. 

From the point of view of immortality, 
man's chief interest is this : Man's eternal well 
being and prosperity. 

A man's motives, intentions and conduct 
throughout life are manifestly vitally and or- 
ganically related to whichever of those two 
points of view he adopts as his own. And mo- 
tive, intention and conduct determine the de- 
sirable or undesirable destiny of every man. 

From the strictly scientific point of view, or 
that of mortality, the value of every scientific 
fact is estimated by what it contributes to 
man's physical and mental well being here 
and now. The use or abuse of things, accord- 
ing to the scientific estimate of values, is de- 
termined by the effects of them upon his tem- 
poral interests. Even the pragmatic philoso- 
phy, which declares everything to be true just 
to the degree of its practical working or use, 
recognizes no higher standard of values than 
man's earthly welfare; and the practical work- 
ing or use of a thing is, hence, determined by 
the effect of that thing upon man's worldly 
prosperity. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 29 

The most successful men in this world in 
just temporal ways are those who have been 
wise enough and sufficiently self controlled to 
make temporal sacrifices for the sake of fu- 
ture gains. If man is immortal, may it not be 
that there are some forms of sacrifice which 
continue throughout the length of this life 
which contribute to the gains and success to 
be enjoyed in the life which follows this one? 
The same degree of wisdom and self control 
as that displayed by the worldly wise man 
just alluded to, when employed by one whose 
point of view is immortality instead of mor- 
tality, will revolutionize the motives, inten- 
tions and conduct and lead to a fruition of 
personal character and power and capacity 
altogether different from those to be enjoyed 
by others. 

What is meant by regeneration and degen- 
eration in a human life? What is meant b^ 
character and the lack of character? What 
is meant by growing into the very best of what 
it is possible for one to become and by turn- 
ing out to be the very worst of what it may 
be possible to become? Here man's chief in- 
terest stands out clearly by contrast. And his 
chief interest is seen to be closely identified 



30 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

with the standard of all values. Evidently 
the standard of all values is to be determined 
by that which is discovered to contribute most 
effectively to the very best outcome to life 
that is potentially possible. Therefore, those 
conceptions of honesty, justice, morality, vir- 
tue, purity and righteousness, which, in the 
nature of things, contribute most effectively 
to a man's best possible fruition, would be, 
according to the standard of all values, right 
and good. The same standard would declare 
that those other conceptions of these things, 
which divert the direction of a man's develop- 
ment away from his highest possible attain- 
ments or to the extent of their diverting in- 
fluence, are bad, evil and wicked. Hence, in 
determining what is best for ourselves as to 
any religious attitude we may assume, the 
question is not one of any theory or church 
dogma, but it is a question of WHAT IS — 
and of finding it out. 

If the standard of all values comes to light 
in wonderful detail for practical application 
and direction in the Qualities of Christ's in- 
numerable experiences then something of 
Christ's own nature will be brought to light 
by the same light. 



religion rationalized 31 

The Fact of Reality 

Reality is. 

Think of it! 

Reality is. 

Again, think of it!! 

Reality is. 

Again and again and again, think of it!!! 

When I first thought of it I was surprised. 

When I began to think of its significance I 
experienced disturbed astonishment. 

Continued meditation upon the simple fact 
of reality has at times awakened impulses and 
emotions of indescribable amazement. 

I was surprised at first because absolute 
nothing is the antithesis of reality; and, nat- 
urally, nothing seems far more probable than 
something. 

The fact that reality is, is absolute proof 
that reality has always existed because some- 
thing can not come from nothing. 

The detection of my own personal con- 
sciousness is my first detection of the existence 
of reality. 

This is at a point on the outermost rim, as 
it were, of reality. If the intelligence should 
be permitted to penetrate into the depths of 



32 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

■ UUU-U-U-i-MMIIIJlLll l ll HJLiilUUiUU -LC-UJ « H i I '■ H ' I I I 'J I. I I ItH lli I . I III ■ 111 -' I 

reality, what are the wonders that might come 
to light? 

Whatever one's notions may be about a per- 
sonal God, he knows that he himself as a finite 
man did not create himself. He is the work- 
manship of self existent Reality. Other mani- 
festations of the workmanship of eternal Re- 
ality also declare their respective existences. 
One bows before the reality of sun and stars, 
of earth and material forces, of innumerable 
other human beings and of his own inexplica- 
ble nature pregnant with both ominous and 
sublime possibilities. 

The detection of one's own personal con- 
sciousness is, as said before, the first knowl- 
edge of reality. Personal consciousness is a 
LIVING thing. This is proof that LIFE is 
identified with Reality. Whatever the eter- 
nally self existent Reality may be in Itself, 
one thing we know as a self evident fact and 
that is that life is identified with It because 
human life is derived from It. Therefore, 
something superior to finite human life dwells 
in the realm of self existent Reality from 
which finite human life derives its existence. 

There is not an iota of evidence to even sug- 
gest that a rock has personal consciousness. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 33 

And yet a rock is one manifestation of Reality. 
So is the sun. And so are all the material 
and inanimate things of the world. But 
their functions? They have all contributed 
to the growth of the conscious lives of 
men! They live, as it were (have a semblance 
of life), in their use, and the end of their 
use is living men. The self conscious rational 
lives of men are the end to which all the things 
of inaminate nature are seen to contribute as 
the function which, by nature, they severally 
fill. Then, whatever a man may be, per se; 
whatever he may stand for in his organic re- 
lation to self existent Reality, one thing is 
manifest, and that is that his relation to ma- 
terial nature is that of lord to servant. Nature 
is nothing other than finite agency or instru- 
mentality to serve the needs of finite human 
life. 

"Is the servant greater than his lord?" 

Can something come from nothing? 

Can life be created by death? 

What then do we see or conclude (when 
we look upon the various aspects of Reality 
as they appear in this world, the very first 
one of which is one's own personal conscious- 
ness which reveals the fact of finite human 



34 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

life), as to the nature of self existent Reality? 
Is "It" as inanimate as the sands? Or is It 
as alive as a man? It cannot be both. Evi- 
dently nothing is lacking in the infinite and 
self existent Reality which we discover here 
as some of its aspects. Its own personal con- 
sciousness can be nothing less than the per- 
sonal consciousness It bequeaths to human be- 
ings. Its wisdom can be nothing less than the 
wisdom of men derived from It. Its emotional 
experiences can be no less alive than those of 
men, which come from It. 

Note furthermore that its power and facili- 
ties within Itself for providing for the grow- 
ing needs of living human beings can not be 
less than the ability to create the instrumental 
inorganic agencies of the material world. The 
uses served by inanimate things represent the 
living powers of Reality for achieving Its 
ends. The existence of the inanimate sands, 
already referred to, might seem to be a mani- 
festation of something equally as dead in that 
from which it originated — in Reality — if it 
were not that the function or use of the sands, 
as that of serving human life, which is also 
derived, belies such a conclusion. If the func- 
tion or use of human life was to serve the 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 35 

sands such conclusion would be permissible. 
There is a semblance of life in the function 
or use of that which in itself is dead. The 
function or use of the sands or other inani- 
mate things proves that they are manifesta- 
tions of facility within Reality. Reality, in 
other words, contains within Itself all facil- 
ity, all equipment, all instrumental agency for 
making Itself effective and these things are 
manifested in the inorganic things of nature. 
Reality, then, can be nothing less, nothing 
inferior to, all that we call human life, and 
It must be inclusive of all the things in the 
created universe that serve human life. Self 
existent Reality, then, is either Human or 
Superhuman! This is a logical conclusion. It 
paves the way for more detailed information 
about God. 

Optimism 

These observations unearth the very deep- 
est laid foundations which underlie philo- 
sophic optimism. 

The function of everything in Nature from 
the sun to the grain of sand is to serve the 
needs of finite human life; whereas the func- 
tion of a human being is to fulfill a purpose 



36 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

extending beyond the uses or services per- 
formed by material Nature; a purpose which 
is the end or aim for which Reality Itself ex- 
ists! Reality, whose existence is a certainty, 
whose significance amazes us, from which 
everything and all things of the world and 
universe are derived, has qualified you and 
me to fill a function, to serve some end, to 
perform a use; so great, so grand, so glorious, 
so inconceivably important as to represent Its 
design or purpose in achievement, and to be to 
It Its satisfaction. Here is honor transcending 
all honor heretofore defined by worldly 
station. 

When one sees and knows that he, as a free 
moral agent and as a rational being endowed 
with personal responsibility, is superior to 
material Nature in the sense of being the ob- 
ject which Nature is designed to serve; and 
that he represents the design or purpose in 
achievement of Reality, he comes into a state 
wherein the deepest and truest humility fel- 
lowships with the sublimest self confidence 
and assurance. The consciousness of responsi- 
bility in the light of one's towering import- 
ance is the underlying cause of all true hu- 
mility and repentance, and this is because the 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 27 

plain and simple meaning of the word respon- 
sibility implies the free choice between suc- 
cess and failure, between reward and pen- 
alty. Every man is certainly endowed with 
honor and station and power far superior to 
anything of the kind that is ordinarily thought 
of or coveted. 

Provision 

As strangers in this strange world, receiv- 
ing introductions to one notable fact after an- 
other, as we slowly acquaint ourselves with 
our conditions and circumstances, one of the 
several greatest of all surprises is that at find- 
ing the marvelous and wonderful PROVIS- 
ION for our needs. Evidently our advent was 
anticipated by something alive within or be- 
hind or over Nature, because Nature has of- 
fered herself wholly and without reserve as 
a perpetual sacrifice to the needs of men. 

Not only do we find the materials for food, 
clothing and shelter at hand. These are rudi- 
mentary. But every science is a distinctive 
volume of testimony to the fact that all the 
substances and forces of the world are noth- 
ing other, per se, than provision for the needs 
of men. The secreted deposits of coal, the 



38 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

buried reservoirs of oil and gas, the mountains 
of iron are as manifest and as significant and 
as suggestive as the warehouses and granaries 
of human workmanship. There is light for 
seeing and sound for hearing. The powers and 
forces latent in chemical relationships have 
already multiplied the muscular power of a 
man's right arm by a billion. The very status 
of magnetic and electrical force has been so 
gracious and condescending as to practically 
obliterate time and space in intercommunica- 
tion among men, to say nothing of its other 
benevolences. Such details could be given 
indefinitely. 

Another surprise, almost equal to that at 
finding such prodigality of provision for us, 
is the fact that so little of it was used by for- 
mer generations and that the present genera- 
tion is using comparatively so much. We are 
startled at the signs of the times! 

The human race has been exploiting the re- 
sources (provision) of the world for untold 
thousands of years. There was a time in my 
youth, in taking this fact for granted, when I 
assumed that opportunity for me in the realm 
of achievement was meager for the reason that 
the thousands of millions of my predecessors 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 39 

had had the advantage of me in point of time 
and had appropriated the best of what there 
was. Alfred Russel Wallace's announcement 
gave me a new point of view. This famous 
scientist showed that during the one hundred 
years preceding the time of his writing the 
progress of material civilization had advanced 
further than during all preceding centuries 
of known history. And since that pronounce- 
ment radium and the x-ray have been dis- 
covered; wireless telegraphy, aerial and sub- 
sea navigation and the automobile have be- 
come commonplace facts. Progress since then 
has been speeding up at a marvelous pace. 

Have there been no corresponding develop- 
ments in religion? 

IS THERE NO PROVISION ANY- 
WHERE FOR THE NEWLY DEVEL- 
OPING SPIRITUAL NEEDS OF MEN? 

If it is true, as has been shown, that nature 
is beneficent — that she is, per se, nothing other 
than provision for human beings — we may 
logically conclude from inference that her 
gifts and sacrifices are regulated — that she 
supplies the right thing at the right time ac- 
cording to the need. And again, from infer- 
ence, this means that the essential needs of 



40 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

men in these marvelous times differ from those 
of men during the centuries that have passed. 
In a sense then the world is now inhabited 
by a new type of man. This is indeed a new 
age in the sense that there is a new manhood. 
Sufficient has been said to give signifi- 
cance to the following questions: May it not 
be that the new type of man of today has spir- 
itual needs which differ from those of the 
man of former generations? May it not be 
that these new spiritual needs call for the ex- 
ploitation of heretofore unknown storehouses 
of spiritual provision equal in their surprises 
to the recent exploitations made by science, 
invention and discovery? May it not be that 
the spiritual needs of the man of the new 
times require knowledge as a substitute for 
faith, conviction and hope? // so, is there pro- 
vision at hand for the acquirement of such 
knowledge? The contents of this book en- 
deavors to spell yes to these questions. This 
provision will be shown to be in the "inter- 
ior" or "spiritual" meanings of Biblical 
literature. 

Spirit Is Substance 

Is it not evident that a human experience is 
as real as anything outside of human experi- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 41 

ences? Is not personal human consciousness 
as real as a human corpse? or as anything 
which is incapable of consciousness? Is not 
life as real as death? Would it then seem start- 
ling if it were discovered that spirit is as sub- 
stantial as matter? 

If this can be demonstrated then human 
emotions and thoughts and the qualities of 
them may be dealt with rationally and with 
the same degree of definiteness as that of sci- 
entists in dealing with material substances 
and forces. 

The prevailing conceptions of human emo- 
tions and thoughts, of "love" and "truth" in 
Christendom remind us of the conceptions of 
heat and light and sound and wind which 
prevailed a few centuries ago. 

Heat and light were as mysterious as 
ghosts. They were vague abstractions. They 
produced certain effects, contributing at times 
to happiness and at other times to suffering. 
Yet they are so intangible as to seem to be in- 
comprehensible. There seemed to be no 
method for learning anything definite about 
them. Sound and wind were two other spirit 
like apparitions. 



42 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

Think of what it has meant to science and 
to the progress of civilization for men to learn 
the simple fact that heat and light and sound 
and wind are simply forms of activity in 
matter! 

Ten thousand of our best mechanical inven- 
tions could never have been invented without 
this discovery!! 

Man is now far on his way toward domi- 
nating the powers and forces of nature, but 
without the simple discovery of this funda- 
mental fact civilization would now be but lit- 
tle in advance of what it was centuries ago. 

Important as this discovery has been to 
science and civilization, no less important to 
rationality in religion will be the knowledge 
that spirit is substance. 

The religious literatures and theologies of 
the past are woefully deficient in that they 
have not dealt with human emotions, loves, 
affections, human thinking and thoughts in 
terms of concrete and definite reality. 

Did you ever stop to think what the rea- 
sons are for holding that matter is substance? 
Upon what grounds is the earth said to be 
substantial? What is substance? 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 43 

A scientist will take a stone between his 
fingers and declare that is composed of ma- 
terial substances. His reasons are that the 
stone displays certain characteristics or phe- 
nomena such as size, shape, weight, color, tem- 
perature, reciprocal relations with other 
things, and the like. These are practically 
all the reasons that can be stated in support 
of the fact that matter is substance. 

Let us now substitute for a stone some hu- 
man emotion or experience and note the char- 
acteristics or phenomena that are displayed 
by it. Take friendship. Friendship, when 
awake or active, occupies a relative position 
in a man's consciousness at a given time. It is 
a part of an experience. It is surrounded, dur- 
ing the period of the experience of which it 
is a part, by other emotions which are more 
or less awake and active at the same time; 
such, may be, as pride, fear, covetousness, 
hope, aspiration. Friendship is either large 
or small, relatively, according to the space it 
occupies, so to speak, as compared with that 
of the other emotions present. It is either 
heavy or light according to its dominance in 
its surroundings. For instance, does not 
friendship outweigh the selfish emotions 



44 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

.1 I II I I I! I ■ ■ I I I I III 

present whenever it leads to personal sacri- 
fice? Is not the color changed when it finds 
itself betrayed? Betrayal by a friend will 
change the color of friendship. And again 
friendship may act upon such a thing as avar- 
ice or greed as effectively as a chemical acts 
upon rock when transforming it into gas. This 
and similar phenomena prove the existence of 
most marvelous relationships between the re- 
alities of spirit which cross the plane of con- 
sciousness, and which, during their stay there, 
are called by the name of human experiences. 
It also proves that there is a spiritual chem- 
istry — relations analogous to those in chem- 
istry — in the spiritual substances of human 
emotions and thoughts. Reciprocal relations 
exist between human emotions and also be- 
tween human thoughts as between material 
substances. 

Thus the fact is brought to light that 
friendship, which is a reality of the spirit, a 
human emotion, displays as many character- 
istics or phenomena in support of the con- 
tention that it is substantial as does a stone 
or any other material object. Therefore, from 
the standpoint of the scientist's own method 
of reasoning we are as much justified in de- 






RELIGION RATIONALIZED 45 

claring the substantiality of spirit as of mat- 
ter. This being true the qualities in the states 
and thoughts of human beings may be studied 
with an accuracy and certainty equal to those 
of science. 

The recognition of the substantiality of 
spirit is a preparatory step, indeed it is a tre- 
mendous stride, toward the recognition of a 
substantial spiritual world or universe into 
which all persons pass immediately at the time 
we call death. If spirit is substance then a 
substantial spiritual world and universe is at 
once conceivable — a world as absolutely or 
"discretely" distinct and different from this 
material world as the human mind is distinct 
and different from its material body. It is, 
furthermore, preparatory, as contributing to 
method in study, to an understanding of some 
of the general and fundamental characteris- 
tics of the spiritual world and of the condi- 
tions of life which prevail there. The sub- 
stances of the spiritual world have character- 
istics similar to those we are acquainted with 
in the human mind. 

Caution. Spirit is substance but it is not 
material substance. It is that, whatever it is, 
that the mind is. 



46 religion rationalized 

Psychology Is Not Spiritual Truth 

PSYCHOLOGY IS NOT SPIRITUAL 
TRUTH. Inasmuch as psychology is the 
science treating of mental phenomena many 
persons claim that it could easily be so ex- 
panded as to include all that is rational in re- 
ligion or theology. For this reason it is im- 
portant to understand the essential differences 
between psychology and spiritual truth. The 
difference is fundamental. It is as clear as 
that between psychology and chemistry or as 
between it and mathematics. They are two 
entirely different things. 

The essential difference between psychology 
and theology or spiritual truth may be seen 
at once, as if by cutting the gordian knot, by 
noting the one essential thing which psy- 
chology can not do which spiritual knowledge 
does do. Psychology can not ascertain or de- 
fine any of the qualities in the emotional states 
and thoughts of human beings. Psychology 
has no method, neither has it qualifications 
for discovering any method, for determining 
upon the question of quality in human char- 
acter. Failing in this it fails absolutely in 
crossing the border which divides material 
nature from the realm of spirit. 






RELIGION RATIONALIZED 47 

For the sake of clearness and, possibly, for 
justice, this contention needs some amplifica- 
tion. First, we need to understand the mean- 
ing of the word quality as it applies to hu- 
man feeling and thinking. The questions nat- 
urally arise, What is a good quality and a 
bad one? Where is the line to be drawn be- 
tween them for the sake of distinctions? 

Fortunately for our immediate purposes we 
may note the fact that there is no man living 
but who has at least rudimentary ideas about 
right and wrong, good and bad, as these ap- 
ply to human character. In replying to these 
questions it is necessary to employ familiar 
words and phrases, even though, by common 
usage, their meanings are obscure and some- 
what misleading. The words "selfishness" and 
"unselfishness" are two of such words that 
must be employed for the present purpose. 
Now, the fact is that the differences between 
selfishness and unselfishness, as they exist in 
the quality of human emotions and thoughts, 
are so great that the real meanings of these 
two words necessarily continue to grow with 
every student of spiritual truth as long as he 
lives. Selfishness in emotion is bad quality 
and unselfishness is good quality. 



48 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

As a starting point, however, we may say- 
that psychology, which is one of the natural 
sciences and not a spiritual science, can not 
discover or reveal any distinction whatever 
between selfishness and unselfishness in the 
qualities of the emotional states and thoughts 
of human beings. This being true it can not 
contribute one iota to the knowledge which 
contributes to the cultivation of unselfishness 
in human character. It can not illumine with 
a single ray the question of personal rewards 
and punishments, of personal acquisitions and 
retributions, as these may be the outcome of 
selfish or unselfish developments in the char- 
acter. This being true we should pause — 
at the significance of the fact! 

Some psychologists will refute this state- 
ment and point to the fact that their literature 
employs the words selfishness and unselfish- 
ness frequently. Yes, psychology has a method 
by which it determines upon what it claims to 
be selfish and unselfish qualities. But when 
this claim is tested in the light of the two 
standards of value already referred to, then 
its claim is seen to be only a presumption. 
This claim is seen to be unwarranted because 
psychology, the same as every other natural 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 49 

science, has no standard of perfect quality in 
human character with which human quali- 
ties are to be compared. In so far as it claims 
to have such a standard or method its claims 
are false. 

As an illustration let us consider the ques- 
tion of the quality of that human emotion 
known as "mother-love". In so far as psy- 
chology claims to determine the selfish or un- 
selfish qualities of human affections it affirms 
broadly and without reservation that mother- 
love is unselfish. According to any standard 
which psychology can select this would be 
true. But according to the standard brought 
to light by spiritual truth, mother-love is a 
thing which sometimes is unselfish and at 
other times selfish. For instance, in the light 
of the spiritual standard, the mother-love of 
a woman who has the spirit of a murderess 
is utterly selfish. But according to psychology 
and its standard her mother-love would be 
as unselfish as that of a saintly woman. 

For further illustration let us consider such 
emotions or loves or affections as those of 
friendship, benevolence and their type. Psy- 
chology says that they are unselfish. In say- 
ing anything about their selfish or unselfish 



50 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

qualities it usurps authority where it has none. 
Friendship and benevolence are at times as 
selfish as any that can be imagined. Friend- 
ship and benevolence are essentially unselfish 
only with those persons whose ruling or pre- 
dominating love is essentially unselfish. 

All have seen instances where the friend- 
ships of evil men have led them to sacrifice 
the common good for the temporal advan- 
tages of their friends. And benevolences very 
often arise out of the basest of motives and are 
intended to serve the most selfish ends. 

Many illustrations might be adduced to 
show that when psychology attempts to dis- 
criminate between selfish and unselfish quali- 
ties in human emotions and thoughts it in- 
dulges in guess work. It is as apt to be mis- 
taken as correct. This is so because the work 
of making such discriminations is entirely out- 
side the realm of its legitimate field. 



Chapter II. 

TWO VAST AND LIMITLESS 

REALMS OF REALITY BUT 

RECENTLY DISCOVERED 

In the sense that Columbus discovered a 
new world and Marconi a new status in the 
substancies of space, both of which discov- 
eries opened gates into new areas of inestima- 
ble treasures for the race, so a spiritual seer 
living a century and a half ago discovered 
two vast and limitless realms of reality, treas- 
ures from which, while somewhat delayed, are 
destined to enrich the world with a riches 
never enjoyed heretofore by men. 

The first of these two vast and limitless 
realms of reality is the one already described 
in the preceding chapter and set forth as be- 
ing, Qualities in the emotional states and 
thoughts of human beings. This first realm of 
reality as thus defined is the distinctive realm 
of phenomena in which every fact is pecu- 
liarly spiritual and the knowledge of which 
is distinctively the knowledge of spiritual 
truth. 



52 RELIGION Rx^TIONALIZED 

In the observations of facts and realities, 
which we are now and will be making to- 
gether — I trust to the end of the book — the 
reader sees as clearly as the writer the simple 
fact that qualities in human character are a 
realm in themselves. How great a realm, how 
vast, how significant is not yet apparent. Such 
aspects have not yet been reached. In travel- 
ing, new glories come to view as one pro- 
ceeds. By way of anticipatory remark, how- 
ever, it may be said that the spiritual scenery 
on either side of the trail we are following 
will have some pleasantly thrilling surprises. 
Would it, for example, be an astonishment if 
you should see presently, with intellectual 
clearness and certainty, such distinctive and 
wonderful views of spiritual reality as that the 
realm of truth is the phenomenal aspect of a 
real world, one that is a veritable universe 
to be identified with immortality and in which 
those whom we think of as having died are 
now living? And if these aspects of the realm 
of truth should be brought to view by a kind 
of spiritual X-ray, as it were, generated by 
a newly discovered mechanism, so to speak, 
in biblical literature, would your opinions 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 53 

concerning the Bible or a divine revelation be 
subject to change or modification? 

Inasmuch as this book aims to contribute 
to method in religious study and thinking, 
and to logical reasoning in spiritual things, it 
endeavors to develop its own contents accord- 
ing to logical steps. With this purpose in 
mind the reader is urged to remember at this 
point, simply that quality in the emotional 
states and thoughts of humans are a realm of 
reality and that it is distinctively the realm 
or that world wherein all phenomena and all 
realities are those of spirit and the knowledge 
of which is the knowledge of spiritual truth. 
All estimates of values and grandeurs yet to 
come to light may appropriately be deferred. 

The Other New Realm of Reality 

Second only in importance to the new realm 
of reality described above and which circum- 
scribes all knowledge of "the truth" — the 
truth to which Christ's life bore witness — 
and described as qualities in the emotional 
states and thoughts of human beings, is an- 
other vast but distinctive realm of reality 
which has been but little thought of hereto- 
fore. It is not even recognized as yet by the 



54 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

great majority of people, notwithstanding that 
the fact of its existence is to be one of the 
greatest and most supremely important facts 
to be honored and studied by future gen- 
erations. 

By giving close attention now the reader 
will presently see for himself this second new 
realm of reality somewhat as he might see 
for the first time the map of some region new 
to him or see for the first time one of the 
planets through a telescope. Take note that 
its importance will not at first be seen. Noth- 
ing of grandeur will appear in its first aspect. 

First, the things of the natural world exist. 
Admitted. 

Second, qualities in the emotional states and 
thoughts of human beings exist. Agreed. 

Third, between any two realities relation- 
ship exists because all things are related. 
True. 

Fourth, relationship between any two reali- 
ties means that they are somehow, and ac- 
cording to their natures, reciprocally affected. 
Each is affected by the other — there is com- 
munication of some kind between them by 
which each "gives and takes." This fact is 
universally believed. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 55 

FIFTH (THEREFORE), RELATION- 
SHIP EXISTS BETWEEN QUALITIES 
IN THE EMOTIONAL STATES AND 
THOUGHTS OF HUMAN BEINGS ON 
THE ONE HAND, AND THE THINGS 
OF THE NATURAL WORLD ON THE 
OTHER HAND. 

Do we still agree? Yes. 

Then you see in the fifth statement the first 
aspect of this new and limitless realm of phe- 
nomenal reality on which comment has just 
been made. 

The statement defines the realm and de- 
termines the boundaries of the realm. 

Before giving this new and vast realm of 
facts an attractive name w r hich might for that 
reason, without some precaution, be used fan- 
cifully, and which might otherwise be sus- 
ceptible of several defiinitions, let us safe- 
guard our vision of the simple fact of the 
realm's existence by noting well the reality 
of it and the description of it. It is simply 
the relations between two distinctive realms 
of substantial reality, namely, the substantial 
realm of spirit and the substantial realm of 
matter. We may now decorate this plainly 



56 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

visible fact with the name: THE RECI- 
PROCITY BETWEEN SPIRIT AND 
MATTER. 

Note should be made at this point of the 
difference between a reality and a substance. 
Matter is substance and spirit is substance. 
The different things to be predicated of either 
of these substances are realities but not them- 
selves substances. For instance shape, color, 
weight and the like are realities but not sub- 
stances. Relationship between two sub- 
stances is a reality but not itself a substance. 
Realities are phenomena — they are phenom- 
enal facts. They are materials for rational 
thinking. This limitless realm of reality, 
which we now designate as the reciprocity be- 
tween spirit and matter, with spirit recog- 
nized as substance, is not itself substantial but 
consists of the phenomena or the phenomenal 
facts of relationship between the substances 
of spirit and the substances of matter. 

Spirit and matter are distinctive. They 
have seemed to be separated and not related, 
but no two things are separated in the sense 
of being unrelated. The sun and the earth 
are distinctive. In a certain sense they are 
separated (by space) but, as a matter of fact, 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 57 

ii 1 ■ 1— ■!— 1— — iiimnnmn-r i 1 n ■ I " I i — — ■ — ■ i ——————— mi^iimm 

they are connected by reciprocal relations. 
Just as provision exists for reciprocity between 
the earth and the sun or between two chem- 
icals, so provision exists for reciprocity be- 
tween spirit and matter. Their interrelations 
are according to their natures, or according 
to the nature of things. 

Our difficulty would seem to be in detect- 
ing and noting and studying and classifying 
the phenomena of this particular realm. Here 
again we must rely on availing ourselves of 
the right method. Achievement of that, 
which, in the nature of things is possible, is 
only dependent on the right method. 

The law of cause and effect — the knowl- 
edge that everything is the effect from some 
cause and that it in turn becomes a cause con- 
tributing to future effects, enables every in- 
telligent man to study the phenomena of the 
world somewhat as he would read a book. 
The visible facts of the world, therefore, are 
a language and for that reason every scientist 
is a linguist. Most strikingly is this true with 
the phenomena of geology. The geologist is a 
linguist who studies history, not in books, but 
in the facts which have been recorded in the 
surface phenomena of the earth. Geology has 



58 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

a language and a literature comparable to 
those of Latin, Greek or Hebrew. 

In like manner the facts or phenomena in 
the realm of relations between spiritual qual- 
ities and material Nature (the phenomena in 
a the reciprocity between spirit and matter") 
are a language whose literature is the constant 
and everlasting reciprocal relations between 
the two. We do not call this the language of 
geology , or the language of astronomy , or the 
language of the moving picture, but we call 
it the language of symbols, or, what is the 
same thing, THE LANGUAGE OF COR- 
RESPONDENCES BETWEEN THE 
SPIRITUAL WORLD AND THE NAT- 
URAL WORLD. 

The fact that symbolism dates from ancient 
times, and that it is now identified with ideas 
of vagary and fanaticism, and that it is, for 
the most part, falsely exploited by irrational 
religious enthusiasts does not lessen the im- 
portance of the fact now being brought to 
light. We will yet show that the phenomena 
to be found and classified in the realm of re- 
ciprocity between spirit and matter give us 
the veritable language of symbols, a language 
written in the hieroglyphics of phenomenal 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 59 

fact just as geology is, and to be interpreted 
by the method of studying cause and effect 
which is the method of every scientist. 
Swedenborg calls this language of symbols the 
language of correspondences between spirit 
and matter and he writes at length also upon 
the "science of correspondences". The science 
of correspondences bears the same relation to 
the language of correspondences as the science 
of geology bears to the language of geology. 
Now note, that which will later be shown, 
viz: that the specific FUNCTION of sym- 
bols or of the language of correspondences be- 
tween spirit and matter is to reveal spiritual 
truth — to reveal the facts which exist in the 
distinctive realm of spirit — to reveal qualities 
in the emotional states and thoughts of human 
beings. 

This being true, the importance of the rec- 
ognition of this distinctive realm of reality 
begins to come to view. 



Chapter III. 
A WAYSIDE TALK 

Consisting of observations on the following subjects: 
ft Seeing for Oneself," "What Is a Human Being" 
"Analogy" "Regeneration and Degeneration" "Hap- 
piness and Suffering" "The Universal Good" 
"Right and Wrong, Good and Evil, Sin" 

Seeing For Oneself 

The author is endeavoring, in the method of 
his presentations throughout this book, to en- 
able the reader TO SEE FOR HIMSELF, 
somewhat as if he were following a mountain 
trail, for the first time, leading into exhilar- 
ating scenery, some of the realities in the dis- 
tinctive realm of spiritual truth. 

Only to a most limited extent can the knowl- 
edge of one man be conveyed by him to an- 
other by the method of dogmatic assertion. 
The function of a true teacher is not so much 
to dogmatise, to assert, to declare, as it is to 
enable the student to see for himself the things 
which the teacher has already seen. This is 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 6l 

eminently true in the teaching of spiritual 
truth. 

This chapter may represent a resting place, 
in the spiritual assent we are making, where 
the author gives a wayside talk, as it were, 
concerning some of the spiritual scenery yet 
in front and above, and for the purpose of an- 
ticipating some things which will, for that 
reason, be more easily and surely "seen for 
one's self" when reached. 

What Is A Human Being? 

WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING? All 
answers to this question can be but partial. If 
partial answers, which are but observations 
upon the subject, are true so far as they go, 
their extraordinary value will be recognized 
and our progress gratifying. 

In point of logical and rational compre- 
hension, the fact of first importance in con- 
sidering what a human being is, is the fact al- 
ready commented upon that spirit is sub- 
stance — not material substance but spiritual 
substance. (Matter and spirit are two distinct 
kinds of substance.) 

The human mind is substantial. Human 



62 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

— — — iiii— w i i i i iii u \mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmtmmmmmmmmmmmmmtmmmmtmtmmmmammmmmmmmmmmammmmmiaammammmmmmmm 

feeling and thinking are substantial. Human 
experiences are substantial. 

CONSCIOUSNESS is a primal kind of 
certainty. And yet it is rather mystifying. We 
are at least acquainted with it. 

Consciousness is, as it were, the particular 
place where the man happens to be, on the 
world of spirit which he himself is. 

Yes! Not only is spirit substance but every 
man is a spiritual world or planet— but in 
human form. 

FEELING AND THINKING, insepar- 
able partners, counterparts, are invariably 
present in every state of consciousness. They 
are the first two things, the two particular 
things, which include all other things com- 
posing a human being, except that which may 
be interior to consciousness as conjoining the 
man to his Creator. 

A man can make mental note of the experi- 
ences of which he is conscious at any given 
time about as easily and as accurately as he 
can of the material things within the radius 
of his eyesight; that is, after some practise at 
such introspection. By taking a general sur- 
vey of a conscious state at any given time, 
somewhat as one would look for all that might 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 63 

- i . i . ' .J ....J. J-l ' L I - ii J - . » . III'- ' 111 — WW^—— ■— — ■ — M— ^MW— I'M BMW ^ 

be seen within the circle of an immediate hori- 
zon, a man would note some dominating emo- 
tion, and then numerous less active feelings, 
occupying their respective portions of the sur- 
face; and, he would furthermore note some 
general trend of thought, with other less com- 
manding matters in mind. For example, one 
might perceive the presence of an intense 
eagerness to win some success as the dominat- 
ing emotion, with certain other feelings of 
friendship, covetousness, jealousy, a prick of 
conscience, sharing their respective portions 
of the conscious area. The chief trend of 
thought would refer to means and methods as 
representing the agency of the dominating 
emotion. At the same time, consideration for 
friends, thoughts of honesty and honor and 
an ever present recognition of related inter- 
ests would all be included in the conscious 
thoughts. 

A striking characteristic of a conscious 
state, or state of consciousness, a state of be- 
ing, is its movement and continual change. A 
state of consciousness is not as stationary as a 
landscape or most other objects of worldly 
scenery. Consciousness is a traveler. Its itine- 
rary is chiefly determined by circumstances 



64 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

over which the man may have but little con- 
trol. These changing states, these travels of 
consciousness, are designed among other things 
to acquaint a man with the contents of him- 
self and to give him the opportunity of 
making the most of himself. Beneficent pur- 
pose is behind the mask of what we call "con- 
ditions and circumstances" — behind the mask 
of environment. To see for oneself that this 
last statement is true is one of the most com- 
forting of all visions of spiritual truth. 

As a matter of fact, this continual move- 
ment of feeling and thinking along the high- 
way of consciousness, with the ever changing 
combinations of emotions and thoughts, is 
nothing other than a movement or travel by 
which the man's own spiritual world comes 
gradually before his personal review. 

Spiritual substance is as volatile and as plas- 
tic as emotion and thought and so this thing 
is possible. It is as adamant, however, as right- 
eous purpose established on the knowledge of 
God. (The great composite spiritual world 
beyond the grave is nothing other than ex- 
ternal forms or manifestations of the emo- 
tional and intellectual realities from within 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 65 

the human beings inhabiting it and composed 
of the same mental substances.) 

Every man as a rational being, as a respon- 
sible being, as one gifted with spiritual free- 
dom makes responses to the component parts 
of himself as they pass him and salute him on 
the plane of consciousness and register them- 
selves as actual experiences. The nature of 
the man's responses to these things helps to de- 
termine the permanent spiritual quality of 
them as they thereafter function in his world. 

"The Lord God brought every beast of the 
field and every fowl of the air unto Adam to 
see what he would call them: and whatever 
Adam called every living creature that was 
the name thereof." (Gen. 2:19.) The word 
"name" is a symbol of spiritual quality. All 
animals are symbols of as many human affec- 
tions. That miniature spiritual world, which 
a man is, includes what is analogous to min- 
eral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. Even 
the animals are not lacking — analogously. 
There is an analogy between what Adam did 
here and what every man does. Every man 
names "every living creature", that is, decides 
the permanent spiritual quality of them as they 
afterwards abide in the composition of him- 



66 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

self or of his character (or of his individual 
world). And the times or occasions when he 
names them are during those experiences, in- 
duced probably by circumstances, wherein the 
living creatures or the affections analogous to 
them, are actually being experienced. 

Yes! A man experiences his own lion and 
bear and fox and serpent and lamb and dove. 
And by his voluntary attitude toward his ani- 
mal experiences he names the animals, that is, 
decides their future qualities and the nature 
of the influences which they will thenceforth 
exert in him. 

Allusion was made in the first chapter to 
the importance to science and invention of the 
simple discovery that heat and light and sound 
and wind are simply forms of activity in mat- 
ter. The further observation was made that 
what this has meant to material progress the 
recognition of spirit as substance will mean to 
rationality in religion and the consequent im- 
provement in human character. 

With the fact in mind that spirit is sub- 
stance one can easily grasp the idea or con- 
ception of a miniature spiritual world or 
planet as the actual thing usually referred to 
in a blind kind of way by those spiritual ob- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 67 

servers who declare their belief in a SUB- 
CONSCIOUS SELF. The subconscious 
self, so called, is nothing less than a complete 
spiritual world composed of the substances 
which we call human emotions and thoughts 
and consisting of realities as vast and varied 
and complex as those that constitute the ma- 
terial world. And furthermore this miniature 
world, which every man is, is of the same sub- 
stance, is homogenious and in living relations 
with the great composite spiritual world 
which is the habitation of all immortal be- 
ings. It is affected by and responds to the laws 
and forces prevailing in the supernatural spir- 
itual universe. This is its status even now be- 
fore the death of the body. Therefore, that 
part of a man which is interior to or beneath 
the conscious plane is by far the greater part 
of him. 

Analogy 

ANALOGY is to be one of the big words 
in the religious literature of the future. 

We speak of food for the body as being 
analogous to fuel for the furnace. Compre- 
hension of an idea is analogous to seeing. 
Analogy refers to a similarity of function or 



68 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

use between things which are entirely differ- 
ent. In considering the meaning of this im- 
portant word one should be scrupulous in not- 
ing the distinctions, the fundamental differ- 
ences, between any two things whose func- 
tions or uses may be similar. Coal used as 
fuel, while analogous to bread used as food, 
is altogether different from bread. Never- 
theless by noting the analogy the mind utilizes 
an instrumentality for promoting knowledge 
and for reasoning. 

The importance of analogy in the study of 
spiritual truth, or in rational thinking in re- 
ligion, is due primarily to the fact that an 
analogy exists between the material world in 
which we are now living and the miniature 
spiritual world which every man is. This be- 
ing the case, a man can study, investigate and 
explore the contents of himself to the extent 
of his ability to learn of the true analogies 
which exist between the things of the world 
and the things of the spirit. 

Reference has already been made to sym- 
bols, and to correspondences between the re- 
alities of spirit and those of matter. Analogy 
between the things of the material world and 
those of the spiritual world means, among 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 69 



other things, that everything in the world is 
a symbol of some other particular thing in the 
realm of spirit. It is a symbol because it is 
analogous to some corresponding spiritual 
thing in the miniature spiritual world which 
every man is. The lion, for example, is the 
symbol of a certain quality and power of af- 
fection in the miniature world which every 
man is, and the general relations of this cor- 
responding affection to all the other emotional 
and intellectual substances and realities there, 
are similar to the lion's general relations to the 
objects of this world. The lion here has its dis- 
tinctive existence, whereas that in a man which 
is analogous to a lion, becomes a personal ex- 
perience — or a portion of one — when it is 
aroused and brought to the plane of conscious- 
ness by circumstances. Likewise, any moun- 
tain or ocean or mineral deposit is a symbol 
of some corresponding spiritual reality which 
may play a part in the actual experiences of 
a human being. No natural object or reality 
could be named which is not the symbol of a 
corresponding spiritual object or reality in 
the spiritual world. The component parts of 
that world which a man himself is may all, in 
their order and according to use, become com- 



70 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ponent parts of his actual experiences. Note 
in this the sublime possibilities in the range 
and variety of experiences in immortality. 

When we come to know that an analogy ex- 
ists between the things of this world and the 
things in human nature we note such phe- 
nomena as floods, cyclones, poisonous and ven- 
omous serpents, obnoxious weeds and the like, 
with solemn concern and with an inquiry as 
to what they symbolize in a man's own soul. 
What do their corresponding things in the 
soul signify in terms of future happiness and 
suffering? And then again, a man feels some 
assurance and much hope when he notes the 
warm spring rains, the growing crops, the do- 
mestic animals, the control and utilization of 
forces that once were wild, because he knows 
that these are also symbols of corresponding 
spiritual realities within himself of which he 
need not be afraid. 

The substances and forces of this material 
world are seen to be divided between two 
general types: those that are helpful and those 
that are harmful; those that save and pre- 
serve human life and those that threaten, in- 
jure and destroy human life. All things are 
related either in a helpful or a harmful way 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 71 

according to their natures, or, according to 
the circumstances under which they are op- 
erating. Some things, foods and clothing for 
examples, which in themselves are good and 
serviceable and hence symbols of good qual- 
ities in the character, become harmful under 
some circumstances and conditions such as in- 
duce gluttony and extravagance. Natural con- 
ditions and circumstances therefore as well as 
things are also symbols and hence have their 
spiritual truths to reveal, and, often, by way 
of showing the spiritual effects from the abuse 
of good things. 

In the second chapter attention was called 
to the relations between the realities which 
compose the distinctive realm of truth on the 
one hand and the realities composing the ma- 
terial world on the other. In this chapter we 
have stated (a thing which, of course, must 
yet be brought to light) that an analogy ex- 
ists between everything of the material world 
and some corresponding spiritual thing in the 
spiritual world, or, vice versa. Inquiry was 
also made in the second chapter as to the dis- 
tinctive reciprocal effects produced between 
a spiritual and material reality in consequence 
of their relations. A general observation of 



72 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 



importance as affecting these two things 
would seem to fit in right here, to be held in 
the memory until brought to light later on. 
It is the fact that the substances and forces 
and realities of the material world, whose 
function it is to serve the needs of human life, 
are the created effects from spirit. The ma- 
terialistic and atheistic conception of reality 
assumes and presumes that dead, inorganic 
matter was the first reality, and that human 
emotion and thinking are effects from this. 
On the contrary, however, Life is the first and 
primary reality — Life which is inclusive of 
human emotion and thinking. And all instru- 
mental agencies for rendering services to finite 
human life, such as the material world or the 
objects thereof are effects from spirit. Spirit 
is not the effect of matter but matter is the 
effect of spirit. 

A fact intimately identified with the fact of 
analogy as just described is that any material 
reality is the effect of its corresponding or 
analogous reality in the composite spiritual 
world. This means that lions for example 
could not exist in this world if the spiritual 
realities, which they symbolize, did not first 
exist in human nature or human minds. It 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 73 

means that the injurious, destructive and mur- 
derous realities of the world could not exist 
if the spiritual things, which they symbolize, 
did not first exist in degenerate human life. 
Their very creation as well as their constant 
preservation is due to the existence of their 
corresponding and analogous things in evil 
human life. And on the other hand the nour- 
ishing, helpful, friendly realities are the ef- 
fects of their respective analogous things in 
regenerate human life. Even the harnessing, 
control and utilization of forces previously de- 
structive are symbolical of things useful in 
regenerate life which are harmful in degen- 
erate life. 

Note another important statement to be held 
tentatively in the memory for a while. There 
is one and only one text book in all the world ; 
one and only one distinctive literature extant, 
whose specific and inmost function it is to 
throw light upon the analogies just referred 
to between the things of spirit and the things 
of the material world. It is the Bible. The 
Bible is written according to the language of 
symbols, or correspondences. The selection 
and the arrangement of words have primary 
reference to symbolical, correspondential or 



74 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

analogous facts which are interiorly involved 
in every sentence. Other chapters will dwell 
upon the significance of this fact. 

For example, a verse may contain the word 
"sword." The literal sense of the text may 
throw light upon righteousness of conduct or 
it may be obscure in its meaning. But interior 
to and independently of the literal meaning, 
the word sword in any text of Scripture is en- 
vironed by its context in a manner to qualify 
it peculiarly to reveal some analogy between 
the sword and the spiritual thing which it 
symbolizes in a man. A sword, when used 
righteously and for the cause of humanity, is 
the symbol of truth, (technically, the symbol 
of the knowledge of particular truth as ap- 
plicable to ones duty or conduct at the time 
or under the circumstances) but when used 
unrighteously and against humanity it is the 
symbol of falsity. The man who voluntarily 
employs the truth as a sword of apposition to 
the evils in his own character wins spiritual 
victories. Another man who disregards the 
truth may be spiritually vanquished by the 
sword of falsity which his own evil tendencies 
and inclinations used against him. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 75 

The Bible thus contains what we call an 
interior sense — a spiritual sense interior to the 
letter. Its function is not to teach worldly 
history or natural science but rather to reveal 
a man to himself for the sake of improvement. 
When the Bible is interpreted according to 
its interior sense, by the aid of the language of 
correspondences, then the natural objects, de- 
scriptions, history, narrative and the like 
which compose its literal sense become a kind 
of world-mirror in which one sees himself and 
his potentialities. As one thus sees himself re- 
flected in Scriptural literature he observes the 
depths into which he might sink and the 
heights to which he might ascend. Such in- 
formation then is intended and qualified to en- 
able a man to take advantage of such time as 
may be allotted him here, and of all the cir- 
cumstances and conditions of life which en- 
viron him as he goes forward, to live most 
effectively in serving his highest interests. 

Regeneration and Degeneration 

REGENERATION AND DEGENE- 
RATION are two other big words in the- 
ology. Their meanings are inclusive of all 
that is meant by the words "heaven" and 



76 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

"hell," "angels" and "devils." From the 
point of view of immortality spiritual regene- 
ration means success, whereas spiritual de- 
generation means failure. The fact that a 
man is a rational being endowed with re- 
sponsibility and granted spiritual freedom 
means that there is a best outcome and a worst 
outcome to life open to every man. Spiritual 
freedom means that a man voluntarily chooses 
between these two alternatives. Personal re- 
sponsibility means that his constitution as a 
human imposes this necessity of choice inex- 
orably. 

Spiritual regeneration then is inclusive in 
its meaning of all that growth and develop- 
ment and acquisition of capacities and other 
values which may be in the nature of things 
possible as representing the very best outcome 
to life. On the other hand spiritual degenera- 
tion, in its meaning, is inclusive of all those 
perversions and abnormalities in development, 
such shrivelling of capacities and poverty of 
emotional and intellectual possessions as may 
be in the nature of things possible as repre- 
senting the very worst outcome to life. 

If we can imagine a millennial state in the 
world wherein practically all of the substances 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 77 

and forces and realities had been brought 
under the domination of intelligence, wherein 
the deserts had been watered and fertilized, 
wherein the frigid climates had been tem- 
pered to human needs, wherein everything 
wild had been tamed, everything poisonous 
had been neutralized, wherein all men live 
as brothers and work harmoniously for com- 
mon ends, we have a picture of that which is 
analogous to the miniature spiritual world of 
the man who has passed to the approximate 
completion of spiritual regeneration. 

On the other hand, if we can imagine an 
opposite outcome wherein the deserts had 
enlarged, wherein the cultivation of lands 
had ceased, wherein climatic conditions had 
grown more severe, wherein earthquakes had 
increased and floods and storms grown in vio- 
lence, wherein wild animals had multiplied by 
preying upon the domestic ones, wherein the 
antagonism of interests among men had bred 
wars and pestilences and reduced the popula- 
tion to a minimum number, we have a picture 
of that which is analogous to the miniature 
world of a degenerate man. 

Note the manifest analogies in the follow- 



78 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ing Scriptural passages which are illustrative 
of what has just been said: — 

"The Lord turneth the wilderness into a 
standing water and dry ground into water- 
springs. And there He maketh the hungry to 
dwell, that they may prepare a city for habi- 
tation ; and sow the fields, and plant vineyards, 
which may yield fruits of increase.' Ps. 107: 
35-37. "The wilderness and the solitary place 
shall be glad for them; and the desert shall 
rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blos- 
som abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and 
singing. * * * For in the wilderness shall 
waters break out, and streams in the desert. 
And the parched ground shall become a pool 
and the thirsty land springs of water: in the 
habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be 
grass with reeds and rushes. And an highway 
shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called 
The way of holiness. * * * No lion shall 
be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up 
thereon, it shall not be found there; but the 
redeemed shall walk there." Is. 35 : 1 -9. Inci- 
dents in the course of spiritual regeneration 
are portrayed by the interior sense of these 
passages. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 79 



Men have usually spoken of human charac- 
ter in an abstract way and have thought of it 
as an abstract thing. The character of every 
man, however, is in fact as real and as definite 
as the spiritual world which he is and his 
world is exactly what his character is. Is there 
a progress of civilization, as it were, within 
the realm of a man? or, is a retrograde barbar- 
ism playing havoc with the materials with 
which his world is composed? Each man is in 
spiritual freedom to answer this question for 
himself. And spiritual freedom is no less a 
serious matter than this. The responsibility 
is imposed upon him to answer it. Regenera- 
tion and degeneration, with all that they mean, 
are the two alternatives between which every 
rational human being makes selection. If life 
is mortal these two words mean but compara- 
tively little; but if life is immortal the mean- 
ing of them grows as their meaning becomes 
known — it is a limitless study offering rewards 
in knowledge whose values exceed all other 
values. 

If a man is growing in regeneration he is 
growing all the time, barring setbacks to be 
recovered. If a man is increasing in degen- 
eration his progress is continuous except as he 



8o RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

may be restrained or withheld by circum- 
stances. Time does not wait on any one and 
in this same sense every man is moving up or 
down in either regeneration or degeneration. 
The wonderful extent of the progress that is 
possible in the course of full spiritual regen- 
eration is so great that a man might live the 
most effective life conceivably possibly, and 
his life might be extended far beyond the 
allotted three score years and ten, and yet the 
progress in the regeneration of his soul in the 
perfecting of the conditions of his miniature 
spiritual world, would continually increase at 
a kind of geometrical ratio until the very last 
day of life in this world. This means that 
there are various stages or degrees in the 
regeneration of character. Some make more 
progress in the regeneration than others and 
some who are degenerating become less 
degenerate than others. 

The words "unselfishness" and "unselfish 
love" represent the qualities of the human 
emotions and thoughts in the realm of regen- 
eration. The words "selfishness" and "selfish 
love" represent the qualities of human emo- 
tions and thoughts in states of degeneration. 



religion rationalized 8l 

Happiness and Suffering 

HAPPINESS AND SUFFERING are 

among the primal and fundamental realities. 
Every man is as well acquainted with them as 
he is with personal consciousness. One or the 
other or both, in greater or less degree, is 
always present in any experience. 

Observations upon the subject of what is a 
human being, any study or investigation of 
what a man is, must necessarily include a con- 
sideration of happiness and suffering. I voice 
the sentiment and will of every human being 
in saying that happiness, considered in itself, 
is desirable, and suffering is undesirable. All 
men want to be happy. No man wants to 
suffer. 

Is there then any sure and certain road to 
happiness? 

Is there, in the nature of things, on account 
of what is potential in man, on account of any 
possible order to be established in his minia- 
ture spiritual world, on account of any possi- 
ble improvement in personal character, on 
account of any possible growth or develop- 
ment for which he is in part responsible, any 
sure and certain road to happiness? 



$2 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

Facts that are accessible in the distinctive 
realm of truth declare that this sure and cer- 
tain road to continuous and everlasting happi- 
ness is in existence and that every man who 
WILL may find and follow it. 

What is happiness and what is suffering? 

No evidence needs to be adduced to prove 
that every man wants things. He craves 
things, loves things, has an affection for things, 
desires things, longs for things, aspires 
for things, hopes for things, yearns for things. 
And then again he hates things, abominates 
things, dreads things, fears things, dislikes 
things, shuns things, avoids things, abhors 
things, is anxious about things. Common expe- 
rience teaches that happiness consists of the 
gratification of the desires. To the extent that 
any affection or love is gratified to that extent 
happiness is experienced. To the extent that 
one wants things and is denied them to that 
extent he suffers. And to the extent that unde- 
sirable and dreaded things are arbitrarily 
imposed, to that extent one suffers. 

How dreadful then to want the impossible! 
— to want that which, in the nature of things 
or on account of irremedial circumstances, is 
impossible to acquire! 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 83 

Would it not seem that the road to happi- 
ness is in training or disciplining oneself to 
want or desire objects, which in the nature of 
things can be acquired, rather than in attempt- 
ing to usurp infinite power for the purpose of 
gratifying the wayward and futile desires at 
any time dominant? 

In this world every man is in the making of 
what he is yet to be. The spiritual status of 
every man here, notwithstanding that he may 
have made much spiritual progress in per- 
sonal development or spiritual regeneration, 
has inherent wants, cravings, affections for 
impossible things and others for things posi- 
tively evil. He has some loves, the voluntary 
indulgence of which w r ould be destructive to 
his own interests. His personal improvement 
is therefore dependent upon the disciplining 
and transforming of such emotions. More or 
less of suffering therefore is one of the neces- 
sary and inevitable ingredients of the experi- 
ences of every man who pursues the road to 
permanent happiness. 

Man's wants, cravings, affections, loves 
change. These emotional realities are sus- 
ceptible of transformation. Herein is man's 
hope — his salvation. Man is so constituted, 



84 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

the emotional and intellectual realities which 
compose him are such in their natures, that 
he may gradually acquire only such loves, 
wants or affections as can in the nature of 
things be freely granted. When this improve- 
ment in the quality of his heart's desires 
reaches certain possible points then all suf- 
fering with him will be of the past. The chief 
concern of a man in this world, therefore, 
should not be the acquirement of the things 
he wants; but it should rather be the acquire- 
ment of the wants or desires which, in the 
nature of things, can be granted satisfactions. 
This is only another way of saying, "Seek ye 
first the kingdom of heaven." 

The Universal Good 

The facts from the realm of truth give us 
a conception of the universal good. There is 
such a thing as THE UNIVERSAL GOOD. 
It can only be seen in distinct outline, how- 
ever, from the point of view of immortality. 
The very substances, forces and laws in the 
spiritual world promote and conserve the uni- 
versal good: The status of all substance and 
force and law in the spiritual world is such as 
to co-operate with and facilitate all finite 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 85 

efforts which serve the universal good. This 
being true it stands in direct opposition to all 
finite efforts which are in opposition to the 
universal good. To the extent, therefore, that 
any man, here or hereafter, loves the universal 
good and loves the particular things which 
conserve or promote the universal good, to 
that extent the infinite resources, powers and 
forces of self-existent Reality supply him in 
overflowing abundance with his heart's desire. 
They facilitate him in the works of achieve- 
ment and he is limited in facilities, achieve- 
ment and happiness only by the finite limita- 
tions of himself. Here is a situation or con- 
dition where happiness would be limited only 
by finite capacity. It is the condition and state 
of life with those in the spiritual world who 
are regenerated. 

A statement may be made in this connection 
to serve as a definition for unselfishness. That 
quality of human emotion which finds happi- 
ness in serving the universal good is unselfish. 
Here is an idea of what unselfishness is in the 
nature of things. Selfishness, of course, would 
be the opposite quality. But, what is the uni- 
versal good? Divine Revelation alone brings 
this to light. 



86 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

In a spiritual universe of such a character, 
where all external and environmental realities 
are co-operating to promote and conserve the 
universal good, what is the fate of a man 
whose wants, affections and loves are all in 
direct opposition to the universal good? To 
what extent can he be allowed to have what he 
wants? In the nature of things, What is the 
lot of such a man? Any lengthy treatise on 
the subject of hell would seem to be unneces- 
sary. Infinite mercy might provide means for 
mitigating the disappointments and sufferings 
of such a situation, but restraints and failure 
and feebleness of capacities would character- 
ize their condition and lot. 

Right and Wrong, Good and Evil, Sin 

The simple and clear meaning of the word 
"responsibility" brings to light as a self-evi- 
dent fact that, as covering all things for which 
a man is responsible, his loyalty and disloyalty 
to the interests involved are right and wrong, 
good and evil. Responsibility and loyalty 
equals right and good. Responsibility and dis- 
loyalty equals wrong and evil. There is noth- 
ing evil where there is no personal responsi- 
bility — but where responsibility begins there 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 87 

are interests to be protected and at this point 
right and wrong begin. Here as said is a self- 
evident fact. Here is a glimpse of a rudi- 
mentary aspect of what right and wrong, good 
and evil are in the nature of things. The sig- 
nificance or importance of right and wrong, 
good and evil depend upon the extent and the 
nature of a man's responsibility. If a man is 
responsible for nothing of great importance 
then nothing of great importance attaches to 
right and wrong, good and evil. 

What then are the chief things for which 
a human being is responsible? 

If a man is mortal his responsibilities have 
regard only to interests that are temporal. 
But if man is immortal his responsibilities are 
identified with interests that are eternal. The 
fact of immortality dignifies man's responsi- 
bility immeasurably and multiplies the sig- 
nificance of right and wrong, good and evil 
by a figure too great to be named. 

A man as an immortal human being is pri- 
marily responsible for forming the habit and 
persisting in it, of choosing right instead of 
wrong, of favoring what is good in preference 
to what is evil. There may be a question as 
to what extent a man determines his own con- 



88 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ditions and circumstances, shapes his own 
environment, but there is no question as to a 
man's ability to determine what his own 
mental attitude is to be toward his conditions 
and circumstances or toward his environment 
as respecting right and wrong, good and evil. 
And upon his choice in this matter depends 
the growth and development of that ability, 
already referred to, which qualifies one to love 
the universal good and thereby to come into 
co-operation and rapport with the eternal 
powers and forces w r hich serve and promote 
the universal good. This is only another way 
of speaking of a man's ability to love God and 
to serve Him. 

In other words, man's responsibility is pri- 
marily identified with any progress that may 
be made in the spiritual regeneration of his 
soul. The spiritual regeneration already 
referred to is impossible without voluntary 
loyalty to the chief interests for which the man 
has been made responsible by the Creator, and 
for which he is now in the nature of things 
responsible, which responsibilities are primar- 
ily the choosing of right instead of wrong, the 
favoring of good instead of evil. Regenera- 
tion is not only possible but assured to every 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 89 

one who is voluntarily loyal to the chief things 
for which he as a human is responsible; and 
no man is ever responsible for the impossible 
or for anything that is beyond his facilities or 
power. 

SIN. What is sin? To know what sin is 
one must first know the meaning of the word 
VOLUNTARY. Sin essentially is voluntary 
disloyalty to the chief things for which a man 
in the nature of things is responsible. This 
should now be self-evident. The same thing, 
in different words, which may not be as mani- 
fest, is that it is the voluntary choosing of 
wrong and evil in preference to right and 
good. An evil or selfish craving or desire is 
not a sin until he, who, in experiencing it, vol- 
untarily seeks to gratify it. Voluntary consent 
to or co-operation with one's evil desires and 
inclinations is sin. But evil inclinations and 
tendencies and states of mind are not sins in 
themselves. These tempt one to sin. Tempta- 
tions force a decision. If the decision favors 
the evil desire the man commits sin. 



Chapter IV. 

THE OBSCURITY OF TRUTH. 

Y^K HE obscurity of spiritual truth is so 
V«i/ peculiarly surprising that it is a bul- 
wark of agnosticism, if Infinite Intelligence 
has anything to reveal to fragile finite man, 
Why is it not presented in a clear and unmis- 
takable manner? The inference and the banter 
in this question carry much weight with super- 
ficial mentality. How strange, that truth, 
which is unobservable or denied by the "wise 
and prudent" can be seen and acknowledged 
by "babes and sucklings"! This obscurity, 
however, has its rational explanation. 

Everything that grows, grows according to 
its nature, which is according to order. This 
is law. A man's capacity for knowledge is a 
thing that grows. A man has numerous fac- 
ulties for acquiring different types or kinds of 
knowledge, as for example the inventive fac- 
ulty, the mathematical faculty, the imagina- 
tive faculty. These faculties likewise are 
things which grow. This means furthermore 
that any fact or parcel of knowledge must 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 91 

necessarily remain unobserved and unknown 
by any particular person until he is sufficiently 
mentally developed and qualified to recognize 
and know it. 

There is a finite wisdom, for example, that 
can weigh the world and which can see for 
itself that the sun is approximately 90,000,000 
miles from the earth. This wisdom had its be- 
ginnings in the sense impressions of earliest 
childhood ; and, at one time, its growth had not 
yet passed the knowledge of addition and sub- 
traction. The ability to read Shakespeare, 
itself reads back to the learning of the ABCs. 
Thus the mental processes for acquiring 
knowledge proceed according to order, 
according to law. 

The faculty of rationality makes such use 
as it can of the accumulated facts in mind, 
however poor or rich the accumulation may 
be. This accumulation, such as it is, is used 
by rationality, such as it is, in forming rational 
conclusions, generalities of belief, ideas, judg- 
ments and the like. 

The first of all the mental materials enter- 
ing into the formation of knowledge are facts 
of phenomena. Here is a distinctive type of 
facts. This type should be well noted. The 



92 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

sense impressions in early childhood which 
register in the child's experiences and mem- 
ory, are of this type: PHENOMENA. 

The basic or primary facts of all knowledge 
are the facts of phenomena which are of this 
type. 

The importance of this observation is suf- 
ficiently great to deserve most careful atten- 
tion. We have in it an important guiding 
principle in reasoning or in rational pro- 
cedure. 

Note:— from the realm of environment 
each of the five senses is attacked, as it were, 
by those things which, without asking permis- 
sion, arbitrarily impose sense impressions or 
experiences. The infant, the child, the man 
is exposed at five points to the exactions of 
environing reality. Things compel him to see 
them. Objects demand that he hear them. 
Realities require of him that he feel them. 
He is under the necessity of smelling things. 
And food is as a tyrant to impose the experien- 
ces of taste. All of these experiences which are 
imposed by environmental or surrounding 
objects are FACTS. They register them- 
selves in the memory. They accumulate from 
day to day. They <are mental materials — 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 93 

materials for permanent knowledge. They 
are properly called facts of phenomena or 
phenomenal facts. 

A phenomenon may be difficult to explain. 
The experience imposed by a flash of light- 
ning, for instance, registers the phenomenal 
fact of lightning on the memory. Men have 
always known of the fact of lightning, but 
they were never able to explain the phenome- 
non until recent years. In rational procedure, 
the distinction between facts of phenomena 
and explanations of them is most important. 
These basic and primary facts are matters of 
knowledge. We know them. We are certain 
of them. But we must exercise great caution 
before deciding that we are sure of our expla- 
nations of them. A notable instance of failure 
in making this primary and fundamental dis- 
crimination is to be found in those writings 
which deny the phenomena named matter, 
evil, suffering and the like. Such advocates 
deny what they know and assert what they 
conjecture. The existence of matter is a phe- 
nomenal fact and so is the existence of that 
experience called suffering. We know these 
things as facts of phenomena. But when it 
comes to explaining them, we may find as 



94 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

much difficulty as our forefathers did in 
explaining lightning. 

CHIEF of all the working materials 
employed by rationality are the simple and 
basic facts already alluded to, namely, facts 
of phenomena. Rationality may be rich or 
poor in its possessions of these working mate- 
rials. A splendid accumulation of phenom- 
enal facts relating to some special subject, 
other things being equal, helps to qualify a 
man to become expert or proficient in that 
subject. Owing to this, some men might for 
example be experts in mathematics and all 
but foolish in their opinions on economics, or, 
vice versa. 

The foregoing observations will soon be 
seen to be preliminary to a rational explana- 
tion of all seeming obscurity of spiritual 
truth. 

We have said that lightning, for example, 
is a fact of phenomena or a phenomenal fact. 
The lightning, a tree, an article of food, can 
"impose" or "inflict" experiences by which 
the person is compelled to recognize these 
three external objects as phenomena. 

But, What of the experiences themselves? 

The EXPERIENCE imposed or inflicted 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 95 

by an external object, through one or more 
of the five senses, always precedes the recog- 
nition of the object and is itself a phenomenal 
fact. Personal experiences then are them- 
selves facts of phenomena. And facts of phe- 
nomena, bear it in mind, are facts that we 
know, that we are certain of. 

Special attention is now called to the pecu- 
liar function in rationality filled by the facts 
of phenomenal experiences as distinguished 
from the facts of phenomenal objects of the 
external world. 

Facts of phenomena, as already pointed out, 
are themselves a special type of facts. They 
are simple, basic and rudimentary. We now 
find that this type is itself divided into two 
classifications, namely, facts that are external 
to men, or, objects of environment; and, facts 
which are personal experiences themselves. 
These latter facts of phenomena, namely, 
PHENOMENAL EXPERIENCES, are 
peculiarly and vitally related, as will be 
shown, to a man's spiritual insight and to his 
rational conclusions respecting spiritual truth. 

People are so unaccustomed to INTRO- 
SPECTION, that is, making mental note of 
their experiences, that the foregoing state- 



96 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ments will doubtless be surprising to and at 
first questioned by the majority. (Introspec- 
tion does not mean brooding over imperfec- 
tions in a melancholy way. However, repent- 
ance and humility are distinctive matters of 
greatest significance.) Most persons have 
never stopped to think that when the light- 
ning flashes, for instance, a personal experi- 
ence is caused by the flash and that the experi- 
ence could be noted as well as the lightning. 
In other words, no object external to man can 
gain the attention of a man through any of 
the five senses without first causing the man 
to have an experience. This means that the 
number of a man's personal experiences is 
equal, at least, to the number of external 
objects which command his attention. (There 
are also internal objects, as stated before, 
which contribute their quota to every man's 
experiences by influx. A man has an internal 
environment as well as an external one.) All 
of these experiences register themselves on the 
interior memory (including those from within 
by influx). 

To register in the memory means to accu- 
mulate. \ Do not the sense impressions in 
infancy register and accumulate, and build up 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 97 

the mind of the child, even though he remem- 
bers nothing of them in later life? They 
always remain as part of the working mate- 
rials employed by rationality. Likewise all 
personal experiences, whether noted in passing 
or not, register in the memory, accumulate in 
the mind, and play a part thereafter in the 
man's intellectual and rational processes. In 
other words, personal experiences contribute 
as much or more to intellectual power and 
rational ability as does the knowledge of 
external phenomena. 

We have already noted that one type of phe- 
nomenal facts will contribute, for instance, to 
proficiency in mathematics, whereas another 
type will contribute to proficiency in econo- 
mics, and the like. Question: Is there some 
particular type of phenomenal facts whose 
specific function it is to contribute to profic- 
iency in seeing and comprehending spiritual 
truths? Yes. 

The very mention of this type should bring 
the truth of the statement to light. 

It is, UNSELFISH EXPERIENCES. 

This is the type . 

All personal experiences divide into two 



98 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

general types, namely, selfish and unselfish 
experiences. 

That all human experiences are character- 
ized by quality has already been shown. 
Quality in human experiences is either selfish 
or unselfish. The variations and varieties and 
degrees of unselfishness, on the one hand, and 
of selfishness on the other, were pointed out 
in our observations on regeneration and degen- 
eration. There is no human experience but 
what is either selfish or unselfish in its quality. 

The phenomena of unselfish experiences, 
as they accumulate in the mind, supply the 
particular kind of basic or rudimentary facts 
to be employed by the faculty of rationality 
in seeing and comprehending spiritual truths. 
As life advances with the regenerating man, 
the phenomenal facts of this type accumulate 
in rapidly increasing numbers; and for that 
reason, the man grows in mental ability to 
learn of spiritual things, to see the truth of 
spiritual truths, and to form correct judgments 
as to the large generalities of spiritual verities. 

On the other hand, the phenomena of selfish 
experiences, as they accumulate, supply the 
faculty of rationality with facts which are 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 99 

working materials for perversions and mis- 
representations of truth. 

Simply stated this means that if any man has 
experienced but comparatively few unselfish 
emotions, then, but comparatively few of the 
simple basic phenomena of that type have reg- 
istered in his memory, and, for that reason, 
he becomes related to the knowledge of spirit- 
ual truth somewhat as a man is related to the 
knowledge of astronomy who never learned 
the multiplication tables. It furthermore 
means that such a man, having experienced 
many selfish emotions, has become abundantly 
supplied with the opposite type of phenom- 
enal facts which arrange themselves as argu- 
ments in opposition to all spiritual verities. 

Thus it is that unselfish experiences contri- 
bute to the growth of those faculties which 
enable a person to have spiritual insight, spir- 
itual comprehension, and the ability to see 
and acknowledge the truth as it may be 
revealed. 

The statement may be allowed here, for 
whatever it may afterwards prove to be worth, 
that, by a wonderful provision of the Divine 
Providence, all persons are given, during 
infancy and early childhood, a wonderful 



IOO RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

abundance of unselfish experiences. Unsel- 
fish quality of experiences are stored up in 
the mind of every infant as readily and really 
as that sense impressions are stored up, and 
these always remain there as "spiritual 
remains!' These alone are sufficient to ment- 
ally qualify every man in mature years, how- 
ever renegade he may have been, to come to 
his senses, so to speak, if he ever wills to do 
so, and to get back on the right track as repre- 
senting his supreme interests, by seeing and 
acknowledging and heeding the particular 
spiritual truths needed by him under his cir- 
cumstances to lead him to the best attain- 
ments yet open to him. 

We find a striking corroboration of the fore- 
going observations on the obscurity of truth in 
a Scriptural statement by Jesus. He says, "I 
have greater witness than that of John, for the 
WORKS which the Father hath given me to 
finish, the same works that I do, bear witness 
of me that the Father hath sent me." John 
5:36. These words, however, must be inter- 
preted according to their "inner" or "spirit- 
ual" sense in order to find this corroboration. 
According to the spiritual sense of the Scrip- 
tures, the "works" of Christ are, primarily, 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED IOI 

achievements in the spiritual regeneration of 
the souls of men. This, as has already been 
pointed out, is the gradual transformation of 
human emotions and thoughts from selfish to 
unselfish qualities, and growth in those quali- 
ties. The "witness of John theBaptist," accord- 
ing to the interior sense, refers to the evidences 
of Christ's Deity to be found in the literal or 
external sense of the Bible. But there is 
"greater witness," Christ declares, clearer and 
more conclusive evidence than that to be 
found in the literal sense of Scripture as show- 
ing His Divinity. And this is the works of 
Christ. The unselfish experiences of a regen- 
erating man which are the works of Christ in 
him qualify him for receiving spiritual influx 
which distinguishes correctly ideas concerning 
Deity. 

In the first chapter it was shown that we 
become acquainted with things by being 
affected by them and by noting the effects. 
The statement was furthermore made that the 
way we come to know definite and concrete 
things about God is to note the effects from 
Him in our own experiences. This general 
truth may now come into yet clearer light by 
the additional statement, that the accumula- 



102 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

tion of unselfish experiences which takes place 
in the course of one's spiritual regeneration, 
enables one to take notice of or to make mental 
note, while observing the phenomena of his 
own experiences by introspection, of the fact 
that the unselfish quality of them comes to him 
by influx from the Divine and Infinite Being. 
The spiritual light from Divine Revelation, 
through the agency of the Bible, facilitates 
this observation of the effects from God in 
one's personal experiences. 

Additional and striking corroboration to 
this psychic barrier to the knowledge of truth 
in the case of those who would only profane it 
by knowing it, is to be found in the correspon- 
dential or symbolic signification of the word 
"cherubim" in the numerous verses where it 
is to be found. And, again, the same corrobo- 
ration is to be found in the spiritual interpre- 
tation of the Lord's reference to "the sign of 
the Prophet Jonas as the only sign that should 
be given of His Divinity." 



Chapter V. 
THE TEST QUESTION. 

OOES the Bible actually contain the 
"inner," the "interior," the "spiritual 
sense" which the forgoing observatioins imply 
and assert? And is the language of spiritual 
correspondences, already spoken of, a real 
language, according to which the interior 
sense of the Bible has been written, and which 
is now the key for unlocking this interior 
sense? These are the supreme questions at 
issue so far as this book is concerned. 

If so, the Bible is a spiritual luminary, a 
literary sun, whose essential function it is to 
flood with light the world of the subconscious 
or superconscious self and its environing spir- 
itual universe; and to reveal in light the qual- 
ities of the substances of the emotional states 
and thoughts of men. 

All observations thus far presented in this 
book are intended to serve instrumentally in 
throwing light upon the nature of the Bible 
and the correct method for interpreting it. 
The Bible, by the light it radiates, will then, 



104 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

in turn, prove that these observations are true. 
The final proof of all our contentions must be 
found, if found at all, in the revelations from 
the Bible themselves. It is the spiritual rays 
from the Bible that bring to light and make 
manifest all spiritual truths. Our effort is 
to present the method for securing what the 
Bible has to give. 

The chief purpose of this book, therefore, is 
to make the Bible available for man's ever 
increasing spiritual needs. 

Does not the astronomer make the solar sun 
available for some of his needs by utilizing the 
telescope? Does not the anatomist add to the 
availability of the solar sun by utilizing the 
microscope? And is not the availability of the 
solar sun for specific needs enhanced when a 
physician uses the mechanism which generates 
the X-ray? Even the candle, lamp and elec- 
tric light make sunlight available for use at 
night, because the light stored up in these, so 
science tells us, is from the sun. 

The availability of the wonderful and here- 
tofore unknown interior revelations of spirit- 
ual truth in the interior sense of the Bible is 
dependent upon a working knowledge of the 
language of correspondences. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED IO$ 

There is a mechanical phase to every 
achievement. It is the instrumental phase. 
Means and methods are always employed in 
the work of achievement. The language of 
correspondences is to be identified with the 
mechanical phase of the interior revelations 
of the Bible. 

Attention should again be called, for em- 
phasis, to several observations that have 
already been made. First of all is the recog- 
nition of a distinctive and substantial realm 
of spiritual light. What would be the pur- 
pose of sunlight if worlds did not exist for it to 
shine upon? Emotional states and thoughts 
of human beings are the substantial spiriual 
world upon which the spiritual light from the 
Bible shines. 

Other facts already pointed out, to be held 
in mind, are: — 

(a) The relations, or, the reciprocity, 
between that world which is illuminated by 
Divine Revelation and this one which is illu- 
minated by the solar sun. 

(b) Symbols and the language of symbols. 

(c) Correspondences between spiritual 
and natural things; the science of these corre- 



I06 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

spondences and the language of these corre- 
spondences. 

(d) Analogy; and the analogies which are 
so universal and particular as to identify every 
particular reality in the world with some par- 
ticular corresponding reality in the realm of 
human mentality. 

(e) The formation or construction of all 
biblical sentences with such peculiar refer- 
ence and relation to symbols, spiritual corre- 
spondences, analogies between spiritual and 
natural realities, as to give us a book which 
is equivalent to a new book in addition to the 
old one; and written, as it were, in a foreign 
tongue. 

The Literal Sense of the Bible 

In this connection a word should be said in 
regard to the Divine Revelations of truth 
made through the agency of the literal sense of 
the Scriptures. There is a Divine Revelation 
of truth in the literal sense of the Bible. The 
spiritual truth revealed in the literal sense of 
the Scripture has been sufficient to supply the 
needs of men almost up to the present time. 
The essential difference between the revela- 
tions in the literal sense and those in the 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 107 

internal sense is that the one is like light 
obscured, whereas, the other is like light in 
its clearness. The revelations of truth, which 
come to us through the literal sense of Scrip- 
ture, is like the light which comes through 
clouds. The literal sense, among other things, 
contains history, narrative and science, not- 
withstanding the fact that it is nothing of the 
function of Divine Revelation to teach his- 
tory, narrative and science. These things 
serve beneficently w T here human conditions or 
perversity cause a need for spiritual obscurity. 
Their more important service, however, is by 
way of furnishing the materials for the lan- 
guage of correspondences. The literal sense 
of Scripture is indispensable to the spiritual 
sense. The spiritual sense functions in the lit- 
eral sense as really as the soul functions in the 
body. Therefore, the literal sense of Scrip- 
ture is as holy and as sacred as the internal 
sense, notwithstanding the fact that the light 
of truth from the literal sense is like the light 
shining through clouds of varying densities, 
whereas the light of the interior sense is like 
the direct rays of the sun at mid-day. 



108 religion rationalized 

Other Observations 

The human mind or soul, with these terms 
employed in the sense of representing the real 
man as distinguished from the physical body, 
has already been referred to as a miniature 
spiritual world. Observations have also been 
made concerning the analogies between the 
contents of the human mind as a world and 
the things of this material world. A working 
knowledge of the language of correspondences 
requires some additional observations in line 
with these. 

Generalities and Particulars 

There are generalities of knowledge and 
particulars of knowledge. Progress in knowl- 
edge could not be made without both of these 
types. In reference to generalities of knowl- 
edge, the first, the primal or most fundamental 
general fact in science is that of "matter" or 
"substance". Next to this is the fact of "force" 
or "energy" or "activity". In thinking of the 
material universe in terms of generalities we 
therefore think first of matter and secondly of 
energy. These two facts not only imply but 
bring to light a third one, namely, continual 
change or achievement. The fundamental and 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 109 

primal trinity, as to the generalities of things, 
as a trinity exists in the nature of things in 
the material universe, are: matter or sub- 
stance; energy or activity; continual change 
or achievement. 

This trinity has its analogy in the human 
mind. It is emotion, thinking and achieve- 
ment. This same trinity has its analogy in 
God. In Him it is the Divine Love, the Di- 
vine Wisdom and the Divine Achievements 
in creation. (Preservation is only continuous 
creation.) 

Coming down, as it were, from the primal 
generalities of knowledge there are lesser gen- 
eralities, such, for instance, as that all things 
of the world are divided between three king- 
doms, namely, the mineral, vegetable and ani- 
mal kingdoms. Here is a general classifica- 
tion of innumerable things. Of all the mil- 
lions, and millions of millions, of particular 
things in the world there is not one but what 
falls within one of these three kingdoms. 
These three kingdoms have their analogy in 
the human mind or in the world of spirit. In 
consequence of this analogy the composite 
spiritual world itself contains those things 



IIO RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

which are analogous to our mineral, vegetable 
and animal kingdoms. 

For the present purpose of acquiring the 
working knowledge of the language of cor- 
respondences which we will need in making 
our first rudimentary translations, and in gain- 
ing thereby the first glimpses of spiritual veri- 
ties to be recognized as coming from the spir- 
itual sense of Scripture, we will now make 
some additional statements of fact, the truth 
of which will be seen to depend upon whether 
they serve instrumentally or not in gaining a 
knowledge of this language. Any part of a 
mechanism gives proof of its identity by the 
particular function it fills; and, likewise, some 
statements now to be made will be verified 
when they are seen to be indispensable parts 
of a mechanism which makes the revelations 
of the inner sense of the Scriptures manifest. 

First, inasmuch as the human mind first 
subdivides into emotions and thoughts or, 
what is the same, feeling and thinking, there- 
fore, all of the innumerable particular things 
in human consciousness or in human life refer 
to one or the other of these two generalities. 
This is as true as that all things in the world 
are either mineral, vegetable or animal. We 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED III 

can therefore say that the mind, including all 
of its parts, including all of the innumerable 
things or particulars which compose it, equals 
human feeling and thinking. And, again, the 
operations of human feeling and thinking 
equal achievement. Achievement, however, is 
something derived whereas feeling and think- 
ing are the component parts. 

Now, if feeling and thinking, or, emotions 
and thoughts, are the first subdivision of the 
human mind, and if all the things of the ma- 
terial world correspond to things in the hu- 
man mind, then, logically, they must corres- 
pond to one or the other or both of these two 
things. This then is a first step in our knowl- 
edge of the language of correspondences. 
Any worldly object corresponds to something 
in human emotion or something in human 
thinking. Here is a starting point. 

But there are innumerable kinds and varie- 
ties of feelings and innumerable kinds and 
varieties of thoughts. Emotions are distin- 
guished primarily by differences in quality. 
And the first difference in quality is that which 
distinguishes good from bad quality. Hence 
some things in the world correspond to emo- 
tions of good quality and other things to emo- 



112 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

tions of bad quality. Some things also cor- 
respond to thoughts of good quality and other 
things to thoughts of bad quality. Here the 
generality is carried from two things, emotion 
and thought, to four things, namely, good and 
bad emotions plus good and bad thoughts. 

The function of some particular worldly 
object, which corresponds to good emotion, is 
similar in its realm to the function of a good 
emotion in its realm. Here is the analogy be- 
tween the two. 

These subdivisions of the human mind, 
starting with simply feeling and thinking as 
the first one, and then extending to both good 
and bad feeling and good and bad thinking as 
the second subdivision, may continue to 
branch out into subdivisions indefinitely. 
These subdivisions branch out indefinitely 
until each one of the innumerable things of 
the world is connected up definitely by anal- 
ogy with its corresponding object. 

That which we have termed good quality 
in feeling and thinking subdivides into lesser 
generalities. There are three general kinds 
of good quality in human mentality or char- 
acter which are designated, according to the- 
ological terms, as celestial, spiritual and nat- 
ural qualities. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 113 

In the observations made in a preceding 
chapter on regeneration and degeneration, 
regeneration was described as representing the 
vast range of possible qualities on the side of 
unselfishness; whereas degeneration was 
described as representing a corresponding 
range of possible qualities on the side of sel- 
fishness. The progress that is potentially pos- 
sible in the acquirement of unselfish qualities 
in character was partially described in these 
observations on regeneration. In this connec- 
tion it should be noted that all things that are 
here and now potential in men have real sub- 
stantial existence in the spiritual world. 

To repeat, then, that which we call good 
quality or unselfish quality or the quality 
which is covered by the term spiritual regen- 
eration, is divided into three general types of 
unselfish quality known as "celestial," "spir- 
itual," and "natural." We might speak of the 
"natural" quality of unselfishness as standing 
for all ordinary kinds of unselfishness that are 
genuine. The "spiritual" type of unselfishness, 
however, is superior to the "natural" type and 
represents that perfected and improved qual- 
ity which can not be acquired except in 
advanced stages of that slow growth in char- 



114 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

acter which we call regeneration. And then 
again interior and superior to "spiritual" qual- 
ity of unselfishness is a "celestial" quality of 
unselfishness which is acquired when regen- 
eration has advanced toward the end of all that 
is possible in the advancement. These three 
general distinctions in the quality of good and 
unselfish emotions and thoughts are so great, 
so marked, so fundamental that heaven itself is 
divided into three parts or kingdoms or alti- 
tudes; and in such a way that all who have 
attained to the celestial degree in their spir- 
itual growth reside in the celestial plane of 
heaven; and those who have attained only to 
the spiritual degree reside in the spiritual 
plane and those who have attained only to the 
natural degree reside in the natural plane. 
The distinction between these three planes of 
heaven is more marked than the distinction 
between different continents of this world. 
Much has been made known concerning this 
subject which is accessible to students; but 
mere reference is made to it now with the pur- 
pose of supplying rudimentary materials for a 
working knowledge of the language of corre- 
spondences. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 11$ 

It was just said that any particular object 
in the world corresponds either to feeling or 
thinking. Later it was stated that an object 
which corresponds to feeling might corre- 
spond either to good feeling or bad feeling. 
Now, it may be observed furthemore that an 
object which corresponds to good feeling 
rather than to bad feeling must correspond 
either to the celestial, spiritual or natural 
quality of good feeling. Now we are follow- 
ing the process of reduction or classification. 
For illustration, let us take the olive, for 
example, which, in common with all other 
worldly objects, is a symbol of something spir- 
itual, which is indeed the symbol of its partic- 
ular corresponding spiritual object. What 
then is olive the symbol of? What does olive 
correspond to? First, we may say, what is true, 
that the olive corresponds to feeling rather 
than thinking. In other words some quality of 
human emotion and not any quality of human 
thinking is the cause of the olive's exist- 
ence in this world. Now, if the olive cor- 
responds to human emotion, Is it good or bad 
emotion? It must be one or the other. In the 
case of the olive it corresponds to good emo- 
tion. Now we are getting nearer to the loca- 



Il6 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

tion we are seeking. Inasmuch as olive cor- 
responds to good emotion it must correspond 
either to celestial, spiritual or natural degree 
of good or unselfish quality. Which is it? In 
the case of the olive it is celestial quality to 
which it corresponds. In other words some 
substantial spiritual reality in the celestial 
degree of regenerated human life is the cause 
of the existence of the olive in this world. 
Olive is the symbol of that celestial reality. 
The function of the olive in this world is sim- 
ilar to the function of that corresponding 
celestial reality in the celestial heaven or in 
the character of a celestial man. The olive 
does not correspond to any "spiritual" quality 
or "natural" quality of good emotion neither 
does it correspond to any quality whatsoever 
of thinking; but it corresponds alone to some 
certain celestial quality of unselfish emotion. 

Now note a most significant fact. Wherever 
the word olive is employed in the literature of 
the Bible it is employed with the specific 
intention of revealing something of celestial 
quality of unselfish emotion. It is not 
employed to teach anything concerning olives. 

Granting that this is true, Do you grasp the 
significance of it? Especially when what is 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED llj 

true of the word olive in this respect is like- 
wise true of all other words in the Bible. 

The olive, in respect to the purpose it serves 
in biblical literature, as just described, is illus- 
trative of the use which the Bible makes of the 
names of other worldly objects. 

Somewhat as the word olive in Scriptural 
literature reveals something concerning celes- 
tial quality, so the "vine" reveals something 
concerning "spiritual" quality, and "fig" 
reveals something concerning "natural" qual- 
ity. This is because the vine in its correspon- 
dence refers to the "spiritual degree," and the 
fig to "the natural degree." 

It is not the function of Divine Revelation 
to teach men anything about olives or grapes 
or figs, and yet it employs these words fre- 
quently. But the function of Divine Revela- 
tion is to teach men about celestial, spiritual 
and natural qualities of unselfish emotion and 
also their opposites. 

As respecting the spiritual truth to be 
revealed, the word olive, for example, as 
employed in the Bible does not mean olive, but 
it means a celestial quality of emotion. Like- 
wise, the word vine does not mean vine but it 
means spiritual quality. Fig does not mean 



Il8 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

fig, but it means natural quality of good. 
Water does not mean water, but it means nat- 
ural truth in its relation to spiritual truth. 
Seven does not mean seven but it means holi- 
ness. Forty does not mean forty but it means 
duration of temptation. Egypt does not mean 
Egypt but it means sensuous or scientific 
knowledge as these are related to spiritual 
growth. Somewhat in this manner a diction- 
ary of correspondences might be written. 
These things are as literally true as that in a 
secret code the word "five" for instance would 
not mean five but might mean, "My mission 
successful". 

Note now a peculiarity in the literature of 
the Bible which is amazingly significant: it 
matters not whether olive, or any other name 
of a worldly object is found in Genesis, Isaiah, 
Matthew's Gospel, The Book of Revelation or 
any other part of the Bible, it is there to re- 
veal something of the spiritual quality of that 
of which it is the symbol. The word is so 
peculiarly related with its environing contexts 
in the different passages wherein it occurs that 
the particular quality of spirit symbolized by 
it is revealed in different aspects and thereby 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 119 

amplified. This peculiarity of the Bible is 
absolutely unique in literature. 

Regeneration and degeneration have already 
been shown to stand in opposition to each 
other. They are the two alternatives of 
growth between which all men must volun- 
tarily choose. Hence, in opposition to the 
celestial, spiritual and natural degrees of good 
quality in regenerated life are three degrees 
of bad quality in degenerating life which, 
according to theological terminology, are gen- 
erally called satanic, infernal and diabolical. 

The language of correspondences is directly 
related to the fact that heaven and hell both 
have contributed and are contributing, as 
cause to effect, some things of the contents of 
this earth. Indeed all things of heaven and 
all things of hell are represented here by act- 
ual worldly objects which are the effects of 
their respective spiritual causes in both heaven 
and hell. Hence it is that some things cor- 
respond to things of heaven while others 
correspond to things of hell. The olive, as 
already said, owes its existence to that which it 
corresponds to in the celestial degree of 
heaven. The venemous serpents, the animals 
of prey, the poisonous weeds and some things 



120 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

in the mineral kingdom owe their respective 
existences to their corresponding things in 
hell. When the Bible employs the word "ser- 
pent", its intention is not to teach anything 
concerning serpents but to teach something 
concerning the selfish qualities in human char- 
acter which correspond to serpents. The owl 
and bat and fox and lion are symbols of quali- 
ties in hell or degenerating human life. 

A working knowledge of the language of 
correspondences requires, among other things, 
the committing to memory of tw r elve generali- 
ties of spiritual realities. They have already 
been presented and should be easily remem- 
bered. They are as follows: Celestial, spirit- 
ual and natural qualities of emotion; and 
celestial, spiritual and natural qualities of 
thinking. Here are half of them. The other 
half stand in exact opposition to these. They 
are diabolical, infernal and satanic qualities of 
emotion; and diabolical, infernal and satanic 
qualities of thinking. Every worldly object is 
a symbol of some spiritual reality in one of 
these twelve subdivisions. It is not necessary 
to carry these subdivisions any further at this 
time for practical purposes. 



Chapter VI. 

THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF SCRIP- 
TURE AMPLIFIED. 

£lT ND they shall call his name, Emmanuel, 
3~JL which being interpreted is God with 
us." (Matt. 1 123.) 

Emmanuel means God With Us. 

Jesus means God as to love. 

Christ means God as to truth. 

Lord means practically the equivalent of 
the two names Jesus and Christ used jointly. 

God is spoken of by many names in the 
letter of the Word. In addition to the names 
above mentioned some others may be noted: 
"Son of Man", "Son of God", "Jehovah", 
"Heavenly Father", "Shepherd", "Wonder- 
ful", "Counsellor", "The Mighty God", "The 
Everlasting Father", "The Prince of Peace", 
"King of Kings", "Bread of Life", "I Am", 
"Way", "Truth", "Life", "God is my Rock" 
(Ps. 28:1 and 62:2); "The Word of God" 
(Rev. 19:3). 

God is spoken of by different names to indi- 
cate as many different forms of relationship 



122 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

which exist between Him and men. The state- 
ment was made in a preceding chapter that 
the method by which we become acquainted 
with God is by detecting and studying the dis- 
tinctive effects from God in or upon ourselves. 
Every name by which God is spoken of in the 
Bible calls our attention, if we will listen, to 
some specific form or order of relationship 
according to which God affects us in a particu- 
lar way. Where the name Jesus is employed 
something is revealed as to the effects we 
receive from God's love. Where the name 
Christ is employed something is revealed as to 
the effects which we receive from God's truth. 
The name, "Father in Heaven," as em- 
ployed in the Lord's prayer, is a name the 
meaning of which is immediately understood 
by means of analogy. If God is a Father then 
there are relations between Him and us which 
are analogous to those between an earthly par- 
ent and his children. The meaning of the 
name "Shepherd" also becomes manifest by 
the analogy between a shepherd and his flock. 
It is by analogy again that reveals at once the 
special relationship signified when God is 
called a "Rock." The idea is at once sug- 
gested that God is the only sure foundation 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 123 

for protection from spiritual storm and flood 
and the like. 

There are two names in particular, by 
which God has been called, in the literal 
sense of the Scriptures, the real interior mean- 
ings of which are of special importance as 
serving our purpose to supply rudimentary 
information. A misunderstanding of their 
interior meanings has lead to misinterpreta- 
tions of Scripture which have caused great 
confusion in the doctrines and theologies of 
many churches. These names are "Son of 
Man" and "Son of God." The name Son of 
Man signifies or stands for that particular 
order of relationship between God and men by 
which God affects men by means of His 
revealed spiritual truth in the Bible. And the 
name Son of God signifies or stands for that 
particular order of relationship by which God 
affects men by means of immediate influx 
from Himself in the affections and thoughts. 

Just how it is that God creates a finite man 
from Himself is beyond our knowledge. Just 
what the most interior connection is between 
God and men by means of which God pre- 
serves the lives of men is beyond our knowl- 
edge. But that we were created, and that 



124 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

there is an interior connection by which we are 
preserved alive, and that we are a finite some- 
thing-other-than-God are self evident. And 
that God is producing effects in our lives by 
many different means and methods becomes 
known from revelation. He affects us, for 
example, by utilizing other finite objects, and 
particularly other human beings, instrument 
tally, for our good. He furthermore employs 
angels and evil spirits instrumentally for our 
good, and these effects are by influx from the 
spiritual world. He affects us by means of his 
divine revelations of truth in his written 
Word. And, besides these ways, and numer- 
ous other ways which might be mentioned, he 
also affects us for good by direct and imme- 
diate influx without any intermediary agency. 
Wherever Son of God appears in any text of 
Scripture the passage of Scripture in which it 
is contained invariably has something to teach 
or reveal concerning God's immediate influx 
into the emotions and thoughts of men. 



"Son of Man 



fj 



Special attention is now to be focused upon 
the interior meaning of the name "Son of 
Man." Wherever the name "Son of Man" 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 1 2$ 

mil ii ■ 1 111 ■ - . - . - , , 

appears in the literature of the Bible the 
reader should look for some revelation con- 
cerning the effects of God in man by means 
of Divine Revelation. Son of Man, accord- 
ing to the interior or spiritual sense of its 
meaning, calls attention at once to the Bible 
as the medium of spiritual light. 

The Second Coming of the Lord 

"And then shall appear the sign of the SON 
OF MAN in heaven . . . and they shall 
see the SON OF MAN coming in the 
CLOUDS of heaven with power and great 
glory." (Matt. 24:30.) 

Note that it is the SON OF MAN who 
was to come in the CLOUDS of heaven. 

The passage already quoted is from the 
gospel of Matthew. In the gospel of Mark 
it is repeated in these words: "And then shall 
they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds 
with great power and glory." (Mark. 13 :26.) 
And again, when Christ was asked by the high 
priest at the time of his trial, immediately 
before his crucifixion, "Art thou the Christ, 
the Son of the Blessed," the Scripture contin- 
ues "and Jesus said, I am; and ye shall see the 
Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power 



126 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Mark. 
14:61, 62.) In the gospel of Luke the word- 
ing is: "And then shall they see the Son of 
Man coming in a cloud with power and great 
glory." (Luke 21-27.) As we turn back to 
the Old Testament passages we find, for 
example, in Daniel: "I saw in the night vis- 
ions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man 
came with the clouds of heaven . . . and 
there was given him dominion and glory and 
a kingdom, that all people, nations and lan- 
guages should serve him: his dominion is an 
everlasting dominion which shall not pass 
away and his kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13, 14.) 

The spiritual meaning of the name Son of 
Man is identified with God's personal pres- 
ence in his written Word. What now is the 
spiritual meaning of the word "clouds"? 

The second coming of the Lord was to be, 
as to its appearance, as the Son of Man com- 
ing in the clouds of heaven with power and 
great glory. Clouds correspond to the literal 
sense of the Scriptures. 

There is an analogy between the function of 
clouds in Nature and the function of the lit- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 127 

eral sense of the Scriptures in man's spiritual 
regeneration. 

With these spiritual definitions in mind it 
is evident that the Lord's second coming is 
not in a physical body in the natural clouds 
of our world. His second coming is rather 
by the opening of the interior or spiritual sense 
of the Scriptures by which He reveals Him- 
self anew as to who He is and what His 
relations are to men and what His essential 
qualities are. Thus his personality, divinity, 
infinity, friendship, intimate personal rela- 
tionships with men and similar things appear 
somewhat as He appeared to Peter, James and 
John on the mount of transfiguration where 
"His face did shine as the sun and His raiment 
was white as the light." 

The Bible, when interpreted according to 
its spiritual sense, is, from beginning to end, 
a revelation of Jesus Christ. He came "to 
fulfill the law and the prophets." "One jot or 
one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 
till all be fulfilled ." (Matt. 5:17). "Now all 
this was done, that it might be fulfilled which 
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet." 
(Matt. 1 :22.) Near the beginning of his min- 
istry Jesus went into the Synagogue at Naza- 



128 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

reth on the Sabbath, and, having read a pas- 
sage from the Prophet Esaias declared, "This 
day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." 
(Luke 4:21.) Christ met with His disciples 
on several different occasions following His 
crucifixion and resurrection. On one of these 
occasions He said unto them, "These are the 
words which I spake unto you while I was 
yet with you that all things must be fulfilled 
which were written in the law of Moses and 
in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning 
Me. Then opened He their understanding 
that they might understand the Scriptures." 
(Luke 24:44, 45.) 

By understanding the Scriptures as they 
refer to Jesus Christ means the observation of 
or the insight into the perfect qualities of the 
numerous experiences which Christ experi- 
enced in this world. For illustration, there 
are a great many passages scattered through- 
out the Old Testament the spiritual sense of 
which are direct revelations concerning spe- 
cific experiences of Jesus Christ. For instance, 
the narrative of Abram's leaving Canaan in 
time of famine and going down into Egypt 
(Gen. 12:10), when spiritually interpreted, 
throws light upon the experiences of Christ 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 129 

— l.l-l 1 I ll l l ' » Mi l l >. .1 I IBiU1H«llll««lHl»U.»:illlll>» !'■ JfclilLLLJM-MLWt-i I B I ■■ ! I MI.UUJfjUM g 

when, as an infant, Mary and Joseph took 
Him into Egypt to be out of reach of Herod 
the king. Even the literal sense of some pas- 
sages of the Old Testament are unmistakable 
as referring to Christ's experiences. The fifty- 
third chapter of Isaiah is an example of this 
kind: "Who hath believed our report? and 
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender 
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He 
hath no form nor comliness . . . He is 
despised and rejected of men; a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief . . . He 
was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He 
opened not His mouth: He is brought as a 
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
her shearers is dumb so He openeth not His 
mouth." 

For other examples the wars described in 
the Old Testament might be cited. 

WAR 

The reality of WAR is one of the grim facts 
of the world. 

War corresponds to spiritual temptation. 

Jesus Christ experienced numerous spiritual 
temptations. "Then was Jesus led up of the 



130 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the 
devil. And when He had fasted forty days 
and forty nights He was afterward an hun- 
gered. And when the tempter came to Him, 
he said, If thou be the Son of God, command 
that these stones be made bread." (Matt. 
4:1,3.) "Again the devil taketh Him up into 
an exceeding high mountain, and showeth 
Him all the kingdoms of the world and the 
glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these 
things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down 
and worship me." (Matt. 4:8, 9.) Christ's 
Gethsemane experience was another and one 
of His deepest temptations. Christ had other 
experiences than those of temptation. He 
experienced the joys and wonderful satisfac- 
tions which follow victory over temptation, 
and He had other experiences besides. 

When the Old Testament wars are inter- 
preted according to the language of corre- 
spondences they become luminous with truth 
concerning spiritual temptations, and the ana- 
logues of many of them were actually experi- 
enced by Jesus Christ. 

Agnostics have frequently referred to the 
Biblical descriptions of wars with the argu- 
ment that such cruelties and horrors would be 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 131 

incompatible with a Word of God. When, 
however, it is known that there is an interior 
sense to these descriptions and that this inte- 
rior sense throws light on the wars between 
good and evil in the individual lives of men 
this skepticism has no ground. In the course 
of life the spiritual regeneration of every man 
involves experiences as serious as the grim 
business of war. 

An observation of greatest significance may 
be made at this point. The spiritual wars in 
the life of an individual man which are coin- 
cident with his spiritual regeneration are 
started by the evil forces in the heart as the 
aggressors. The principles of righteousness 
in the individual heart do not make war 
although they fight in war. Their warfare is 
that of self defense and the defense of what 
they stand for. And in all spiritual warfare, 
during times of temptation, victory for the 
righteous principles is absolutely predeterm- 
ined to the extent that loyalty to them is main- 
tained. And the analogy of this is true in the 
life of the human race in the wars between 
nations. This analogy will be somewhat 
amplified shortly. 

There is a great difference between Christ's 



132 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

temptations and those of men, which should 
be noted. Christ's temptations were so dif- 
ferent from those of men that ours are only 
analogous to His. Inasmuch as He was infin- 
ite and divine, He fought His own spiritual 
battles in His own spiritual strength, whereas, 
with us, we do not fight our spiritual battles in 
our own strength but in His strength. We are 
peculiarly and wonderfully related to psychic 
or subconscious realities and conditions. We 
are recipients of both good and evil influxes 
from the subconscious or superconscious 
world. Christ, by His unique victories in 
temptation, produced universal effects, we 
might say, which extended throughout the uni- 
versal spiritual realm of existence, by which 
the human race could forever thereafter be 
preserved in its spiritual freedom, and be 
given access to the assistance of divine and 
infinite power. These universal things are 
simply referred to, to suggest ideas involved in 
the great doctrines of redemption and salva- 
tion by Jesus Christ. 

Reference has been made repeatedly to 
man's responsibility. In a time of spiritual 
temptation a man's responsibility consists 
chiefly in his favoring truth and right as these 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 133 

may stand in battle array against falsity and 
wrong and as these are recognized in his per- 
sonal situation. The man's intentions and pur- 
poses must be on the side of truth and right. 
To the extent that opportunity offers he must 
co-operate with truth and right. This largely 
constitutes a man's willingness that the Lord 
should fight his battle for him. We do not 
always determine our own circumstances (per- 
haps never do ) but we invariably determine 
our personal attitude toward our circum- 
stances as to favoring the right or wrong. 

Some temptations are mild and some are 
severe. Some are brief and some are of long 
duration. All temptations are accompanied 
with more or less of tribulation. "In the 
world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good 
cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 

16:33.) 
With one who has practised introspection, 

he can look upon his trials and tribulations 
during a period of temptation somewhat as a 
spectator can look upon a battle while in prog- 
ress. A temptation must run its course just 
the same as a battle must be fought to the 
finish. A man must be firm in his spirit of 
endurance while the temptation or conflict 



134 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

lasts. If his loyalty is maintained to the end 
the victory is certain, and for the reason that 
the man, having done his part, God does all 
the rest. 

Let us see what the analogy of this brings 
to light for interpreting the outcome of wars 
in the world. That which has already been 
said concerning the Lord's second coming and 
that which will presently be said concerning 
the descent "from God out of heaven of the 
holy city New Jerusalem" should be sufficient 
to indicate the certainty of the fact that the 
human race as a race is being spiritually 
regenerated. The continuing progress of civ- 
ilization is hence certified to by the revela- 
tions of the interior sense of the Scriptures. 
Therefore, granting that man as a race is being 
spiritually regenerated, as is the case, all wars 
are to be interpreted just as the temptations 
with regenerating men are to be interpreted 
in whom good principles prevail over evil 
ones. The wars which rage between peoples 
and nations are only the visible aspects of con- 
flicts between righteous and unrighteous prin- 
ciples in the heart of the social relations of 
mankind by which the unrighteous ones 
become vanquished and the righteous ones 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 135 

become permanently established. In every 
war, spiritual principles involving the spirit- 
ual progress of mankind are involved. And it 
is always the case that the particular spiritual 
principle which should be established as the 
step to be taken at the time in man's spiritual 
progress is victorious. To the extent that the 
righteousness exemplified by Christ and 
involved is dependent for its success on the 
victory of one side in any great world war, 
and that the unrighteousness of human degen- 
eracy involved requires for its obliteration the 
defeat of the other side, to that extent the vic- 
tory of the one and the defeat of the other is 
perfectly certain. The ultimate outcome of 
all wars can be predicted according to this 
spiritual interpretation. As for the sacrifices 
and the tribulations which may be involved 
in any war — the price to be paid for the tri- 
umph of righteous principle — this is another 
matter. But by every war, thanks to the oper- 
ations of the Divine Providence, righteousness 
in the world is advanced and unrighteousness 
is diminished. 

The knowledge of spiritual truth is more 
peculiarly related to a man than most people 
are aware of. During the course or progress 



136 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

fi tth ii i nn' ■ ■ ■■ i nn 1 11 ———— —— n i ni jw -awtg-gggai ii ii 11 11 1 igsesgsggg»«egga 1 1 m gggMgagaEBgastB— matsmmmi . 11 

of regeneration the knowledge of truth is grad- 
ually increasing. Naturally and inherently 
the general trend of our strongest affections or 
desires or emotions is in opposition to the prac- 
tice of spiritual truth. Therefore it is of the 
nature of a newly learned or discovered truth 
to require sooner or later some form of per- 
sonal sacrifice. Some evil tendency in the 
character or disposition will sooner or later 
find itself challenged by the presence of any 
newly acquired knowledge of truth. When 
this is the situation it is the nature of the evil 
tendency to make an assault. It makes war 
for conquest. Truth stands its ground. Spir- 
itual tragedy ensues. Temptation is on. Suf- 
fering and tribulation for a period is the state 
of the man. 

The mind is, in a sense, a large household. 
Christ's parable of the householder was based 
upon this fact. Many persons or affections of 
various opinions or qualities compose this 
household. Some are good and true whereas 
some are evil and false. Nevertheless, they 
all live together in comparative peace and 
friendliness with the evil ones hiding behind 
hypocracy. The master of the house is the 
predominating or ruling love. EVERY 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 137 

MAN HAS A PREDOMINATING 
OR RULING LOVE IN RELATION 
TO WHICH ALL OTHER AFFEC- 
TIONS AND EMOTIONS OCCUPY 
THEIR RESPECTIVE POSITIONS IN 
A SUBSERVIENT WAY. The knowledge 
of some new spiritual truth comes as an 
adopted son or daughter into the household. 
The new-comer is welcomed because a right- 
eous man is always open minded to truth. His 
position an the household becomes at once 
established. Sooner or later, however, some 
false and hypocritical member of the house- 
hold, the defender of some evil quality, recog- 
nizes in the new comer his very opposite, 
(because for every good is an opposite evil 
and for every truth is an opposite falsity) and 
one who is sure to lay bare his hypocracy and 
reveal the evil of the quality he has been pro- 
tecting, and one who will prevent his further 
freedom. In accordance with his nature he 
challenges for a duel. This rebellion induces 
a state of temptation. Here is a state of war. 
It means that something alive is being killed 
because truth defends. The master of the 
house, the ruling love, is in a state of tribula- 
tion. He had therefore innocently loved the 



138 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

offending member, but he must now take sides 
and, in taking sides, he is loyal to the truth. 
He protects his newly adopted child of truth 
by a friendly attitude, whatever the conse- 
quences, and the consequences are that the 
long cherished and protected falsity with its 
evil is vanquished. 

The reader may take the assurance of the 
author, for whatever it may be worth, that 
one will make the personal acquaintance of 
Jesus Chirst, and come into intimate personal 
relations with Him, and see Him really in 
His second coming, just to the extent that he 
interprets the Bible correctly according to its 
inner or spiritual sense with the aid of the 
language of correspondences. The interior 
sense of the Scriptures brings Christ to view. 
It enables one to see and to know that Christ 
is God. It brings to view the relationship by 
which the infinite and divine Man may be 
recognized as a Friend. "Ye are my friends," 
he once declared (John 15:14). "How oft 
would I have gathered thy children together 
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings," He at another time exclaimed (Matt. 
2 3 : 37) • It reveals Him as the infinite and 
Divine Being, the Creator and Preserver, the 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 139 

Saviour and Redeemer who exercises constant 
and continuous solicitude and loving kindness 
for every man and woman in the world. 

But what is personal acquaintance? What 
is it to know a friend? Much friendship is 
blind emotion misplaced. Much of it is super- 
ficial and imaginative. True and abiding 
friendship can not exceed the knowledge 
which one may have of the qualities of the 
one for whom friendship is felt. Jesus Christ 
stood in bodily form and presence before mul- 
titudes of men and women. Those multitudes 
had eyes, but they saw not. They did not see 
Christ the Friend, Christ the Saviour, Christ 
God incarnate. They saw only Christ the 
finite figure of flesh and blood. If Christ 
should come the second time in flesh and blood 
on a material cloud the multitudes today 
would be as blind in their spiritual sight as 
they were nineteen hundred years ago. The 
first step to be taken in seeing Christ as He 
really is, is that step which enables one to see 
some distinction between selfish and unselfish 
quality in human character. When we first 
recognize unselfishness in human quality, as 
distinguished from and in contrast with selfish- 
ness, then a true idea of Divinity first appears 



140 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

iii-ma sg i |p—— i i I n » u- t gggegsgagg gM ■ ■ . i i ■' n i iggBeggagggCBS— a=a«8— ^g a i i i — I i i a aagage»aaegeg3Bai 

— even though it may be as remote, compara- 
tively, as a twinkling star. But, from that star, 
rays of light from Divinity have established 
permanent connection with the eye of spiritual 
understanding. 

Forty 

Special attention is called to the word or 
number "forty" because the spiritual idea 
involved in it is associated with the idea of 
war or temptation. Forty signifies duration 
of temptation. Furthermore, even the literal 
interpretation of the majority of the numerous 
passages in which forty occurs suggests the 
idea of trial or temptation. Let us look at a 
few examples. Jesus was in the wilderness 
being tempted of the devil forty days. He 
fasted forty days. The children of Israel 
remained in the wilderness forty years. The 
rain which caused the flood in Noah's time 
continued forty days and forty nights, and then 
again the flood was forty days upon the earth. 
In the law of Moses forty stripes were to be 
given, "and not exceed." In Jewish history 
the Israelites were delivered into the hands 
of the Philistines for forty years. Before 
David killed Goliath, "the Philistine drew 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 141 

- — - ■ ... . - - - -. 

near morning and evening and presented him- 
self forty days" 

It may be noted here as referring to David 
and Goliath that a little while before David 
slew Goliath he had been a shepherd boy. 
Sheep and lambs correspond to certain types 
of goodness and innocence. His faithfulness, 
symbolically speaking, in protecting these 
heavenly qualities was tested to the extent of 
his hazarding his life in personal combats with 
a lion and a bear in which combats he single 
handed killed both the lion and the bear. 
Thus, symbolically, he had become prepared 
in quality of character to protect the princi- 
ples of righteousness represented by his race 
by killing the giant Goliath. In spiritual 
regeneration one victory over evil is prepara- 
tory to the next one of greater importance. 

Revelations Concerning Immortality 

Revelations concerning immortality are to 
be found in the literal sense of the Scriptures, 
but, as they are seen in the literal sense, they 
are comparatively obscure. It is otherwise in 
the spiritual sense. In the interior sense of 
the Scriptures the revelations of immortality 
are not only luminous but are given in great 



142 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

abundance and in marvelous detail. Accord- 
ing to the literal sense again, some of the few- 
passages which treat of the future life are sus- 
ceptible of different interpretations whereas 
according to the interior sense the interpreta- 
tions are not susceptible of different interpre- 
tations. 

This difference between the literal and spir- 
itual sense of Scripture is wonderfully and 
beautifully brought to light by the spiritual 
interpretation of that passage describing the 
gamblers' throwing dice for Christ's garments 
after the crucifixion. Immediately after the 
crucifixion, soldiers took his garments to 
divide among themselves. They found that 
his outer garments consisted of four parts but 
that his coat, the inner garment, "was without 
seam woven from the top throughout." They 
divided the four outer garmens between them- 
selves "to every soldier a part" but for his 
inner garment they cast lots. "That the Scrip- 
ture might be fulfilled they parted my raiment 
among them and for my vesture they did cast 
lots." The external or literal sense of the 
Scripture is represented by the four outer gar- 
ments. The apparent contradictions, the dif- 
ferent interpretations that are possible, the 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 143 

deceiving appearances and things of that kind 
in the literal sense are represented in the fact 
that Christ's outer garments were several in 
number to be divided. But the interior or 
spiritual interpretations are "without seam 
woven from the top throughout" which is to 
say that the Bible interiorly is perfectly con- 
nected in a rational and logical way. 

The Old Testament has seemed to be pecu- 
liarly wanting in its references to immortality. 
The Old Testament, however, according to its 
interior sense, is as clear and as specific in its 
revelations concerning the spiritual world as 
is the New. As a matter of fact there are 
numerous passages in both the Old and New 
Testaments which interiorly treat of the life 
after death, but which, according to the literal 
sense, do not seem to treat of the subject even 
remotely. Not only so but the fact of immor- 
tality and the fact of the existence of the spir- 
itual world or universe are everywhere 
implied or taken for granted in the spiritual 
sense. By this is meant that the specific spir- 
itual truths revealed in any verse of the Scrip- 
tures could not be truths if there were no spir- 
itual world. For examples of those passages 
which interiorly reveal detailed information 



144 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

concerning the future life attention need only 
be called to any of the very numerous pas- 
sages which treat specifically of regeneration 
and degeneration of human character. One 
of these is the account of creation in Genesis. 
This is a spiritual allegory treating specific- 
ally of regeneration and degeneration of 
human character. Many of the potentialities 
of human life, including many things of both 
heaven and hell, are depicted in the revela- 
tions of regeneration and degeneration in this 
portion of the Old Testament. 

Another large area of Old Testament litera- 
ture, the interior sense of which reveals won- 
derful details concerning heaven and hell and 
immortality, is the narrative of Moses' lead- 
ing the children of Israel out of Egypt 
throughout the forty years' experiences in the 
wilderness to the promised land of Canaan. 
Again, the descriptions of the tabernacle, 
which are tedious and apparently useless to 
most men knowing nothing of the spiritual 
sense, are, when interpreted spiritually, a 
beautiful picture of the spiritual world. The 
description of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem 
in the land of Canaan gives similar informa- 
tion concerning spiritual regeneration, immor- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 145 

tality and the conditions of life hereafter. The 
description of the holy city New Jerusalem 
given in the twenty-first chapter of the Book 
of Revelation is another example of this 
kind. 

The Holy City New Jerusalem 

In the twenty-first chapter of the book of 
Revelation the measurements are given in con- 
siderable detail of the holy city New Jerusa- 
lem. The summary of these measurements is 
"the measure of a man that is of the angel." 
The Apostle John in writing the book pf 
Revelation recorded spiritual visions that it 
had been given him to see. In one of these 
he saw "a new heaven and a new earth," and 
in connection with those he saw "the holy city 
New Jerusalem coming down from God out 
of heaven." 

The new Jerusalem derives a part of its 
spiritual significance from its relation to the 
old Jerusalem. The old Jerusalem was located 
in the promised land of Canaan. Canaan was 
a symbol of both the regenerated state of a 
man and heaven. Here the temple was 
located, the place of worship. Here the ark 
of the covenant was located which contained 



146 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

the Lord's Word. It was in the "holy of 
holies." Jerusalem is thus the symbol of the 
CHURCH. 

Particular care should be taken in defining 
the meaning of the word "church." The 
church is not an ecclesiasticism although 
ecclesiastical things attach to the church. The 
church is not a worldly organization although 
organization is an incidental feature of the 
church. The word "church" stands for that 
form of human association whose supreme and 
specific object is to protect and promote such 
interests as are involved in man's spiritual 
regeneration. This form of association or 
organization has varied according to men's 
notions concerning their spiritual interests. 
All men have eternal or spiritual interests not- 
withstanding that some men are blind to them, 
and notwithstanding that some others misin- 
terpret them. The spiritual interests of men, 
as those interests exist in the nature of things 
and not according to our misunderstanding of 
them, are common interests — they are inter- 
ests which all men have in common. Inso- 
far as men can associate themselves together 
and work co-operatively in organized effec- 
tiveness for their genuine spiritual interests, 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 147 

to that extent there does exist in this world a 
church. Such a church changes in form. It 
may be divided into many forms. But such 
a church always exists. This is the church 
which is symbolized by Jerusalem. It is also 
the church which is symbolized by the holy 
city New Jerusalem. 

Observations have already been made con- 
cerning the Lord's second coming. It may 
now be said furthermore that the new heaven 
and the new earth seen in John's vision are to 
be identified with the Lord's second coming. 
The New Jerusalem is also to be identified 
with these. By the opening of the interior 
sense of the Scriptures the human race was 
to come into abundant information on spirit- 
ual subjects. This wonderful increase of spir- 
itual enlightenment and rational thinking on 
spiritual subjects would naturally lead to 
astonishing changes and developments not only 
in the worldly conditions of men, such as is 
represented by political, social and scientific 
transformations; but also in that form of 
human association and organization by which 
men work together in protecting and promot- 
ing their spiritual and eternal interests. These 
latter changes constitute the newness of the 



148 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

New-Church — the church of the New Jerus- 
alem. Its descent from God out of heaven sig- 
nifies the rapidly and steadily increasing spir- 
ituality in the hearts and lives of an ever- 
increasing number of men and women. 

The interior sense of the Scriptures is now 
open, its incomparable supplies of spiritual 
truths are now available, the holy city New 
Jerusalem is now descending out of heaven 
into the world, the Son of Man is even now 
seen in the clouds of heaven with power and 
great glory. The Lord's second coming has 
already taken place, and we are now citizens 
of the "new earth" of prophecy in these new 
and incomparable times in which we are 
living. 



Chapter VII. 

THE GREATEST OF ALL GREAT 

MEN. 

^¥^HAT is a great man? How is one man's 
\ms superiority over another to be described? 
Evidently and manifestly greatness with men 
is to be truly judged and estimated by services 
rendered or uses performed. This is our pre- 
mise. Any reader who can not stand upon 
this rock may as well close the book here. 

That particular man, if he can be found, of 
whom it can be shown that he was greatest 
in doing good, greatest in serving his fellow 
men, greatest in performing uses for human- 
ity, may be justly accredited as the greatest 
of all great men. 

Doing good! Rendering services! Per- 
forminguses! WHAT ARE THESE? The 
answer may be stated simply and in simple 
terms. The meaning of the answer, however, 
must gradually grow on one. 

Doing good, rendering services, perform- 
ing uses, are primarily and fundamentally 
nothing other than supplying genuine human 



150 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

| l l_ ll I ■ |||I H II lH I HJ...L»_Jl.J_ t -L_l-l— I-H-l— LM«- UL-UJ-LJl»i-JIXJ>Ml.^JI - i« J -*UMU.J I M l Ull X. I 1. 1 , 1 .1 I. I II .I II ■! 

needs. HUMAN NEEDS! Something colos- 
sal and towering is confronting us in the 
meaning of these two words. The question 
of what service is has just been answered. But, 
What are genuine human needs? 

A man's needs are not necessarily indicated 
by his wants or cravings or whims. A man 
might actually need some things which he 
most dreads and abhors. To the extent that 
a man's knowledge of himself is superficial 
to that extent his knowledge of human needs is 
superficial. 

Human needs are many and, as to import- 
ance, they are relative. Food, clothing and 
shelter supply needs, which, while primitive 
and essential, are important chiefly because 
the body, in its turn, supplies the more 
important needs of the mind. Comparatively 
the needs of the mind are greater than those 
of the body. 

The physician's first task at the bedside of 
a patient is to diagnose the ailment, which is 
nothing more nor less than to ascertain the 
needs of the patient. A physician can not 
serve until he knows the needs. A true states- 
man is ever in the effort to study the needs of 
society that he might supply the needs by legis- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 151 

islation and administration. The majority of 
inventions are simply mechanisms for supply- 
ing needs which inventors had first seen. 

The idea of human needs is closely associ- 
ated with the idea of what a human being is, 
and with the idea of what the potentialities of 
a man are, and with that of what man's 
supreme interest is. These have already been 
commented upon. 

The following four statements should now 
be self evident: — 

(1) The greatness of a man is commen- 
surate with the greatness of the services he 
renders. 

(2) The greatness of the services a man 
renders is commensurate with the greatness of 
the human needs he supplies. 

(3) The greatness of human needs to be 
supplied is commensurate with the greatness 
of finite human life. 

(4) The greatness of finite human life, 
when it is seen to be immortal rather than 
mortal, is so sublime as to perpetually tax the 
comprehension and to stimulate the imagin- 
ation. 

Man's supreme interest was pointed out, in 
the first chapter, as the best outcome to life, 



152 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

which, in the nature of things, may be pos- 
sible. This should be recognized in contrast 
with the worst outcome possible. This being 
true, man's greatest needs, comparatively 
speaking, are for those things which will aid 
him most effectively in securing for himself 
this best possible outcome to life. A man's 
needs then are of relative importance. Some 
are greater and some are less. And, there- 
fore, the importance of uses to be performed 
or services rendered are comparative. Some 
are greater and some are less. 

THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF 
THINGS is, in itself, a great theme. It is 
the duty of every man to be in the constant 
endeavor to distinguish between the relative 
importance of the things which he may be 
dealing with by force of circumstances, and 
then to favor the most important in the order 
of their importance. A man's ability to judge 
correctly of the relative importance of the 
things in hand is a mark of mental caliber, 
and a man's willingness to place special 
emphasis and special favor upon the most 
important things in the order of their impor- 
tance, for the sake of increasing his usefulness, 
is a mark of character. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 153 

Men, then, have needs, and the needs of 
men, as to importance, are relative. Compar- 
atively, the needs of men range in importance 
from the least to the greatest. Therefore, the 
man who serves the greatest needs of all men 
with the greatest effectiveness is himself the 
greatest man. Has there ever been any par- 
ticular man, who, when his services are judged 
according to this standard, stands out pre- 
eminently as the greatest of all the great men 
who have thus far lived? This chapter will 
present evidences to show that this man was 
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 

Jesus Christ is to be eliminated from this 
category because He was not a finite man. 
He was God incarnate. In the person of 
Jesus Christ, Divinity itself was present 
among men. Therefore Jesus Christ was not 
the greatest of all great men because He was 
and is the infinite and divine Man. 

In judging of Swedenborg's greatness by 
the nature of the services he rendered to man- 
kind there is no necessity of comparing them 
here with the services of other great men 
because the reader can make such comparison 
himself when he secures the facts concerning 
Swedenborg. 



154 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

Swedenborg's services will be presented in 
the order of their greatest importance as they 
appear to the author. 

The very greatest of his services was in his 
discovery of the "inner," the "interior," the 
"spiritual," or the "heavenly" sense of the 
Bible, which dwells within the literal sense 
as the soul dwells within the body; the fact 
and significance of which this whole book 
endeavors to portray as its chief purpose. 

In this discovery Swedenborg has shown 
that a most surprising ^provision had been 
created and stored in the Bible, by the 
Almighty, for supplying the rapidly unfold- 
ing and growing spiritual needs of an evolving 
humanity; a provision of divine revelation 
which gives to every man freely and fully such 
knowledge of spiritual truths as the man will 
safely use in behalf of his supreme interests, 
which is, as said, attaining to the best out- 
come to life which is possible in the nature 
of things. 

This discovery has not only made the inte- 
rior revelations of divine truth available for 
the new spiritual needs of the new man of 
these new times, but it has demonstrated (to 
those who "have ears to hear and eyes to see") 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 155 

that these available truths, having first estab- 
lished the rudimentary facts of immortality, 
the existence of God, regeneration and degen- 
eration of character, afterwards supply the 
light which opens the way for study and inves- 
tigation in the realm of spirit which may be 
continuous throughout this life, with prac- 
tical rewards for every effort and every step 
in this spiritual pursuit 

Swedenborg discovered a new Bible within 
the old Bible. He discovered new revela- 
tions of spiritual truth of indescribable clear- 
ness and certainty within the old revelation 
which are of greater and less obscurity and 
uncertainty. In thus making the spiritual 
light of divine revelation available for all the 
spiritual needs of all men in this new age or 
dispensation, he has made available a spirit- 
ual riches, a spiritual provision, whose value 
to mankind is analogous to the value of all the 
riches and the provision represented in all 
modern discoveries, inventions and scientific 
progress; and whose value to mankind is, for 
that reason, as much greater than the value 
of these natural things as a successful and 
happy life throughout eternity is more valu- 
able than any worldly success considered inde- 



156 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

- Hi. h i' , li imm-iji l».i-j- .*.i± jjh.~».i a_ i n - m jj « 1 m m ljuui m '■ .-"iilll. » j i ,. 1 1 «... i.m_- u i . hi in 1 1 111 11 

pendently of or unattached to immortality. 
Here, then, is a service or use the greatness of 
which is above comparison as it stands out in 
its towering preeminence among the achieve- 
ments of the world's greatest men. 

Practically speaking, this one service of dis- 
covering the holy of holies in the interior 
secret chamber of the Word of God, and of 
opening the door into it so that all who will 
may enter into it for spiritual replenishment 
and increase of life, is inclusive of practically 
all the contributions which Swedenborg made 
to the good of mankind. This one service, 
however, in its supereminent greatness 
includes many instrumental and related serv- 
ices, which, when looked upon individually as 
contributory parts, are themselves most nota- 
ble and profitable for observation. 

Among these lesser uses thus performed by 
Swedenborg, among these services which were 
essential as contributing factors in opening to 
mankind the interior depths of God's Word, 
the one most striking and probably the great- 
est, is the definite and concrete and detailed 
information he has given concerning the spir- 
itual world, concerning heaven and hell, con- 
cerning the inhabitants of heaven and hell, and 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 157 

the conditions of life among them. During 
the entirety of the last twenty-eight years of 
his life in this world, Emanuel Swedenborg 
was a traveler and an explorer, by permission 
and under the leading of Divine Providence, 
in the spiritual universe. 

Yes, Swedenborg actually associated with 
angels more than he did with men and women 
in this world, and as intimately, during the 
whole of the last twenty-eight years of his life. 
He had associations also with satanic, evil and 
infernal spirits. 

At the age of fifty-six, Swedenborg, after 
having lived as busy a life perhaps as any con- 
temporary; after having written as volumin- 
ously and lucidly upon nearly all the natural 
sciences as any scientist up to his time (having 
contributed many volumes to science) in addi- 
tion to having served his country as a very 
high public official for nearly thirty years, was 
INTROMITTED into the spiritual world. 
(The word "intromited" will be defined 
later.) And from the age of fifty-six to 
eighty-four, when all connection with his 
physical body was finally severed by death, he 
was an inhabitant of the spiritual world as 
consciously and as really and as absolutely lit- 



158 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

erally in every respect as he was of this mate- 
rial world. All of his numerous theological 
books, (more than twenty large volumes) all 
of which were written during this last period 
of his life, contain, among other things, some 
descriptions and other detailed information of 
what he saw and heard and otherwise experi- 
enced in that world which is now inhabited by 
all the men and women who ever departed 
this world by death. One notable volume 
entitled, "Heaven and Hell," is devoted 
entirely to detailed information which he had 
gained first hand and this was written in the 
thirteenth year of his intromited state. 

Yes, yes, yes. But the proof? 

The proof is as complete and as valid as the 
proof of anything that we know. 

What is, and, Where is, the proof of Swed- 
enborg's veracity? Inasmuch as the marvel- 
ous and astounding statements which Sweden- 
borg makes concerning his own experiences 
in the spiritual world and the realities of that 
world are dependent on Swedenborg's verac- 
ity, Where is, and What is, the proof of his 
veracity? 

This question of proof can be answered as 
quickly as Alexander the Great cut the gordian 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 159 

knot. All irrevelant controversy and discus- 
sion may be omitted. There is one fact, which, 
alone, verifies with indisputable proof, the 
veracity of Swedenborg. It is the fact of 
the interior or spiritual sense in the Word of 
God. Does this spiritual sense in the Bible 
exist? If so, Swedenborg's veracity is estab- 
lished. OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE 
EXISTENCE OF THE INTERIOR 
SENSE OF THE BIBLE IS SWEDEN- 
BORG'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE 
WORLD. And, not only so, but our very 
ability to read the Bible according to its inte- 
rior sense is dependent upon the fact that 
Swedenborg's statements are facts — facts 
which he gathered from his explorations in 
the spiritual world. Swedenborg's veracity is 
therefore attested by the fact that all of his 
questioned statements form part of the mech- 
anism which we employ in seeing for ourselves 
the interior truths of Divine Revelation. 

Swedenborg's affirmation that he had the 
experiences, which he did have, is, in itself, 
no proof, because all imposters make affirma- 
tions. And, again, the reasonableness of 
Swedenborg's descriptions of the other world, 
while somewhat convincing, is wholly inade- 



160 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

quate as satisfactory proof, because reasonable 
appearances can emanate from the imagina- 
tion. But the Bible is a tangible object. We 
can examine its literature as we would a mech- 
anism. Swedenborg places in our hands a 
wonderful array of statements concerning the 
spiritual world, and concerning his own living 
and wakeful experiences in the spiritual 
world, which he tells us are facts. He further- 
more tells us that if we bring these facts into 
certain relations with the literature of the 
Bible we will see something more astonishing 
than Moses did when he saw the burning bush 
that was not consumed. And, to our amaze- 
ment and consequent amazing joy, we find, as 
a matter of fact, that, by the use of these facts, 
the Bible bursts into flame; and, is to us, 
thereafter, a permanently established lumi- 
nary whose rays of; light reveal the substantial 
realities of the distinctive realm of truth. 
This realm of truth, which is thus brought 
under light, which is inclusive of the qualities 
of all human emotions and thoughts, and 
which is, therefore, inclusive of all human 
potentalities, is in fact the spiritual universe 
itself. The study and observation of human 
qualities, under the light of Divine Revela- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED l6l 

tion, are in reality a genuine vision, so far as 
it goes, of its kind, of the very same spiritual 
world into which Swedenborg was "intro- 
mited," and in which the subconscious part 
of ourselves is even now alive, and in which 
we will awaken to full consciousness at the 
time we call death. The spiritual world, as 
we ourselves see it, as we see it for ourselves, 
as it stands revealed in the interior sense of 
the Bible, is, in all respects, in agreement with 
the detailed information which we gain from 
Swedenborg's experiences as these are 
recorded in his writings. And, in this way, 
Divine Revelation itself gives additional sub- 
stantiation to all that Swedenborg sets forth 
as facts concerning the spiritual world and the 
future life. 

(Note that this world stands revealed under 
the light of the solar sun. And yet, How 
much of it is seen by the average man? The 
progress of science and discovery has 
depended chiefly upon man's ability to observe 
facts and realities standing out in clearness 
before his eyes. How slow, nevertheless, has 
been the progress of science and discovery! 
Columbus, we say, discovered America, and 
yet, about all that he was able to describe of 



162 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

what he had seen was a harbor, a landscape and 
some Indians. Compare such a description 
with what we now know of the "new world." 
Therefore the reader is cautioned not to 
expect too much at first from Divine Revela- 
tion when his eyes first behold the luminous 
character of the Bible and the realm of truth 
which is seen under its light.) 

Let it always be borne in mind that the 
information which Swedenborg gathered as an 
explorer of the spiritual universe, while he 
was at the same time an inhabitant of this 
material world, was to serve an instrumental 
purpose. Divine Revelation does not come 
through Swedenborg but through the Bible. 
The facts which Swedenborg gives us are 
seemingly of such great importance as to 
appear to be equal to what we learn from the 
Word itself. But this is not so. To the extent 
that it is so considered, idolatry is established. 
The observations and discoveries of Sweden- 
borg, made by Divine permission and guid- 
ance while he was exploring the spiritual uni- 
verse, were first instrumental in enabling him 
to acquire for himself the knowledge of the 
science of correspondences between spirit and 
matter and of thereby learning the language 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 163 

of correspondences according to which the 
Bible had previously been dictated by God. 
And then, through him they are now instru- 
mental in enabling us to learn the same science 
and language, to the end that the interior sense 
of the Bible may be available for the spiritual 
needs of all mankind. 

By being intromitted into the spiritual 
world Swedenborg was enabled to live in full 
wakefulness in both the spiritual and mate- 
rial worlds at the same time. This was possi- 
ble in the nature of things because the sub- 
conscious part of every man is even now alive 
in the spiritual world, but not in full wake- 
fulness. The Lord could easily grant wake- 
fulness in the spiritual world to any man now 
living, but Pie does not grant such wakeful- 
ness ordinarily because it would entail great 
spiritual harm to the individual and serve no 
useful purpose to the world. The fact that 
Swedenborg could move about freely in his 
spiritual body without being handicapped in 
any way by his connection with his physical 
body here will be commented upon later when 
the distinction is pointed out between matter 
and spirit as two different kinds of substance. 
Suffice it to say here that spiritual substance 



164 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

is subject to the laws of "state of being" 
whereas material substance is subject to the 
laws of time and space. 

Generalities of Information From 
swedenborg 

No seer nor teacher has seen the generalities 
of facts more comprehensively nor taught the 
fundamentals of facts so nearly according to 
their relative importance as did Swedenborg. 
We will now point out some of the mountain 
peaks of knowledge which the reader may 
visit for himself, at his convenience, in the 
voluminous writings of Swedenborg. 

Natural and Spiritual Law 

What is law? It is order in reciprocal rela- 
tionships. Comment has already been made 
in several places upon the meaning and sig- 
nificance of relationship. All things are 
related. All things act and are acted upon. 
All things cause effects and receive effects. 
There is, in the nature of things, order in 
relationships. By virtue of this order every 
particular thing is qualified to fill its function. 
And filling its function is performing its use 
— serving the ultimate end for which it was 
created and is being preserved. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 165 

Not only does natural law exist but spiritual 
law exists. Henry Drummond referred to 
spiritual law when, technically incorrectly, he 
spoke of it as u natural law in the spiritual 
world." By first seeing the essential differ- 
ence between natural and spiritual law one 
can more clearly see the essential difference 
between material and spiritual substance. 

Natural law is predicated of natural sub- 
stance which we call matter. Likewise spir- 
itual law is predicated of spiritual substance 
which we call spirit. If matter did not exist 
there could be no natural law. All abstrac- 
tions are predicated of realities and substance. 
All realities which are not themselves sub- 
stances are predicated of substance. Sub- 
stance is the foundation of all other kinds of 
realities and of all true abstractions. If there 
is such a thing as spiritual law there must be 
spiritual substance of which it is predicated. 

The reign of law prevails not only in the 
realm of matter but also in the realm of 
mind. 

The facts which compose the knowledge of 
nearly every one of the natural sciences are 
nothing other than facts of relationship 
between material realities. Gravity, for 



166 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

instance, is the relationship of reciprocal 
attraction between material bodies. Chem- 
istry again stands for chemical relations 
between material substances. Astronomy like- 
wise stands for relationships between planets, 
stars and the like. Within the relations 
between material substances order or law pre- 
vails. 

Now, in the realm of human mind are innu- 
merable substantial realities as has already 
been pointed out. The number and variety of 
emotions and thoughts and the qualities of 
them are fully equal to the number and vari- 
ety of things in the world. All mental real- 
ities are related. There is an order of recip- 
rocal relationships within the substantial 
realities of the mind. And that order is spir- 
itual law as distinguished from natural law. 
If friendship, for instance, destroys avarice; 
if love of service neutralizes anger, we recog- 
nize striking relations in the realm of spirit. 
These relations are according to law. 

Material and Spiritual Substance 
Distinguished 

Natural laws do not exist in the spiritual 
world for the simple reason that material sub- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 167 

stance does not exist there. Spiritual laws, 
however, exist in the spiritual world for the 
simple reason that spiritual' substance exists 
there. Spiritual substance is that which the 
human mind is. Hence the reign of law in 
the spiritual world is identical with the reign 
of law in the human mind. This means that 
the spiritual substances in the spiritual world 
act and react under the same laws and accord- 
ing to the same order as human emotions and 
human thoughts act and react among them- 
selves. 

On account of the fact that substance in the 
spiritual world is spirit and not matter, as 
just set forth, some remarkable and astonish- 
ing peculiarities, as distinguishing the spirit- 
ual world from this one, can be seen to be 
true. A few examples will be given : — 

(1) The external surroundings or the 
environmental situation of every person in the 
spiritual world is always such as to exactly 
correspond with his state of life. Any change 
in the "state of being" with an angel, spirit 
or devil, is invariably accompanied with a 
corresponding change in his immediate sur- 
roundings. The external world there, being 
of the same substance that the interior life 



1 68 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 



of the inhabitants is, is in fact the objective 
from or expression of the interior self. 

Man is more intimately and vitally related 
to the external world and the things that are in 
it than was ever depicted by poet's pen, 
because, in the spiritual world, the external 
world is the objective form of the interior self. 
And this world is the effect of and is caused 
by the spiritual world. 

The first expression or external manifesta- 
tion of the substances of the mind is a spiritual 
body. Every spirit has a substantial spiritual 
body and lives in bodily form just as he does 
in this world. The spiritual human body is 
the same in all particulars as the material 
body here, with the one difference that its 
substance is spirit and not matter. Its appear- 
ance to the spiritual eyes are exactly what its 
appearance here is to the natural eyes. 

Other objective forms of substance, as they 
project from the emotions and thoughts, are 
all the things which form the outside world 
as we say. If an angel, for instance, comes 
into a lofty state of mind corresponding to a 
mountain, he will be, as to bodily presence, on 
a mountain. And, again, certain emotional 
states have within them, things which corre- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 169 

spond to beautiful flowers, paradisical gardens 
with beautiful lakes and trees. Whenever an 
angel is in the experience of such a state he is, 
as to bodily presence, in such an envir- 
onmental situation. All human emotions and 
thoughts correspond to worldly forms or 
objects and therefore the objects which the 
angels see with their eyes and the sounds 
which they hear with their ears are the 
external appearances of their own experi- 
ences. Therefore if the character is unselfish 
and beautiful the external surroundings are 
beautiful. 

The mental states, or the states of being, 
with angels are continually changing. This 
is only another way of saying that angels are 
active. They are all the time doing things. 
This means that they experience different emo- 
tions and think many thoughts. These 
changes of state are according to order and 
are always in an orderly way. These changes 
can be very gradual or they can be sudden. If 
gradual the changing scenery and environ- 
mental situation may be like the changes 
observed while walking from one place to 
another. But the external surroundings are 
always in exact correspondence with the inte- 



170 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

rior state. If the change is sudden, if, for 
instance, an angel desires to communicate with 
another who is distant from him (thousands 
of miles perhaps) he can communicate with 
that other one by desire and thought, and if 
the other one responds so that there is mutual 
desire to come together, they can be with each 
other instantly. It should be noted, however, 
that the distance which at first separated them 
was fundamentally a difference in their states. 
The desire to be together would necessitate 
their coming into a common state and this 
would mean a change in the environmental 
situation of both. This means that distance in 
the spiritual world is more of an appearance 
than a reality and can be traversed as rapidly 
as emotional states can change. These changes 
in state and the corresponding changes of posi- 
tion as to apparent distances are according to 
order and perfectly normal in the spiritual 
world. 

(2) In the realm of emotions and thoughts 
gifts can be made without impoverishing the 
giver. A teacher never loses his knowledge 
by imparting it to others. A mother does not 
become less loving by bestowing her love upon 
her children. Spiritually, therefore, we 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 171 

become richer by giving. Here is a glimpse 
of a certain spiritual law. On account of this 
spiritual law some striking appearances are 
manifest among the substantial objects of the 
spiritual world. For example, if an angel is 
in possession of beautiful flowers, delicious 
fruit or that which would be analogous to 
money, and if the occasion offered where he 
could supply the needs of others by giving 
these beautiful and valuable things away he 
would not diminish his own supply by giving. 
This peculiarity as attaching to spiritual sub- 
stance is directly revealed by the correspon- 
dential or spiritual interpretation of several 
of the miracles. Jesus with "five loaves and 
two fishes" fed "about five thousand men, 
besides women and children." "And they did 
all eat, and were filled: and they took up of 
the fragments that remained twelve baskets 
full." — (Matt. 14:19-21.) In the time of 
a certain famine Elijah the prophet visited 
the widow of Zarephath, whose remaining 
food supply consisted of "an handful of meal 
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse." And 
thus He declared, "For thus saith the Lord 
God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not 
waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until 



172 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the 
earth." "And the barrel of meal wasted not, 
neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to 
the word of the Lord, which He spake by 
Elijah." — (i Kings 17:12, 14, 16.) That 
these miracles according to their spiritual 
meaning reveal, among other things, the truth 
of this peculiarity in spiritual substance should 
now be self evident. 

(3) All angels are busily engaged in use- 
ful occupation. Unselfish love is in the con- 
stant effort to supply the needs of others., 
Love, like rested muscles, is charged with 
energy. The energy or activity of angels can 
scarcely be compared with that of men in this 
world, and it is the nature of an angel to put 
forth his energy in useful service. In so doing 
he experiences the delights of his life. 

Growth never ceases with any angel and 
this means that every angel is constantly in 
need of those things which administer to his 
growth. All angels have needs and for that 
reason they are (constitutionally) recipients 
of what other angels can do for them. An 
angel therefore can contribute to the needs of 
all others and he can be the recipient of what 
all other angels desire to contribute to him. 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 173 

(Here is reciprocity of unselfishness.) Spir- 
itual substances and spiritual environment 
never retard an angel in unselfish service, but, 
on the contrary, in ways that have no com- 
parisons or illustrations here, they facilitate 
him in any work in hand so perfectly that the 
success of every angel is limited only by his 
limited abilities and qualifications. 

(4) HEAVEN AND HELL are terms 
which distinguish, primarily, opposite or 
opposing "states of life," and which, there- 
fore, distinguish between decidedly different 
conditions of life, and which, therefore again, 
distinguish between striking differences in the 
makeup of the places of habitation. States 
of life are determined fundamentally or first 
of all by quality of character, which divides 
between selfish and unselfish quality. Spir- 
itual freedom and finite personal responsi- 
bility establish, as the two alternatives, selfish 
and unselfish outcomes to life. The one is 
heaven and the other is hell, with all that these 
two things imply and involve. All develop- 
ments which may be possible in the nature of 
things in selfishness of human character are 
what hell is. All developments which may 



174 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

be possible in the nature of things in unselfish- 
ness of human character are what heaven is. 

Fire corresponds to love or emotion. The 
consuming fires of hell are the raging emo- 
tions of selfishness which, by their dominance 
in the individual lives of evil spirits, cause 
an utter perversion of all truth, and these are 
dependent for their gratification or happiness 
upon the unhappiness which they would cause. 
And yet, under the operations of the Divine 
Providence, all of the inhabitants of hell are 
compelled to perform uses. One of the essen- 
tial differences between an infernal spirit and 
an angel is that the evil spirit is compelled to 
perform uses whereas the angel performs uses 
voluntarily. This means, of course, further- 
more, that the uses performed by compulsion 
are of an altogether different order from those 
which are performed by free and spontaneous 
choice. 

Law and order prevail in the hells on 
account of which and by means of which suf- 
fering is mitigated as much as is possible in 
the nature of things. Happiness is granted 
as much as is possible in the nature of things. 
But, in the nature of things, disappointment, 
arbitrary intervention in plans and purposes, 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 175 

many kinds of restrictions, fears and punish- 
ments are identified with the conditions of 
life among those whose quality of character 
is essentially selfish. 

It is altogether otherwise in the conditions 
of life with those whose quality of character 
is essentially unselfish. No disappointments, 
no intervention in plans and purposes, no 
restrictions of any kind, no fears or anxiety 
are identified with the free and spontaneous 
life of those whose character is unselfish. Suc- 
cess in achievement and gratification of all 
desires, which is happiness, are limited only 
by those limitations imposed by limitation of 
mental abilities. 

Heaven and hell are separated. They are 
as distant one from the other as they are dif- 
ferent in quality or state of being. Inasmuch 
as the environmental makeup of hell is corre- 
spondential to and therefore harmonious and 
homogeneous with the states of devils, there- 
fore the inhabitants of hell go to hell voluntar- 
ily. An evil spirit turns away from heaven as 
spontaneously and as quickly as an angel turns 
away from hell. 

At the time we call death every man is as 
to quality of his character exactly what he is 



176 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

— whatever that may be. In the great major- 
ity of instances, there attaches to a good man 
at the time of death many things that are evil, 
and there attaches to an evil man some things 
that are good. In other words the good are 
not yet angels and the bad are not yet satans 
or devils. Owing to this fact there is an inter- 
mediate state or world, midway between 
heaven and hell, called the intermediate world 
of spirits, into which nearly all persons at 
first enter at the time of death. In the inter- 
mediate world, just spoken of, spiritual prog- 
ress continues until the good are prepared for 
heaven and until the bad are ready to go vol- 
untarily to hell. 

Heaven is a vast society, and so is hell. 
The organization of society is such that it is 
an organism. It can be compared with the 
organism of the human body. Organic society 
is itself in the form of a man. That is to say, 
the abilities and qualifications of the members 
of society are so different that, relatively, the 
services rendered or uses performed by one 
may be like those served or performed by the 
eye, while those of another like the services 
rendered or the uses performed by the heart 
or right hand and the like. Thus it may be 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 177 

said that the function of some angels, as refer- 
ring to the services they render throughout 
eternity, is analogous to that of the nerves 
whereas that of others is analogous to that of 
the muscles or the bones or something of the 
head or of the arm or any part of the body, 
Swedenborg's "doctrine of the Grand Man" 
is certainly a towering mountain of wisdom 
for exploration. 

The Idea of God 

God is infinite. There is but one infinite 
God. In the nature of things two infinites are 
inconceivable. In the idea of two infinites 
both infinites are reduced to the finite so that 
all idea of the infinite becomes destroyed. 

God is very substance. Divine love is the 
name of infinite substance. Infinite and sub- 
stantial love abides in a state of activity, 
energy or force. The activity of love implies 
and includes self consciousness. This is Intel- 
ligence or Wisdom. God is therefore both 
infinite Love and infinite Wisdom. It is of 
the very nature of love to be in an effort to 
realize something. This is true of both 
infinite and finite love. Wisdom or Intelli- 
gence is the first means which Love employes 



178 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

for acting in accordance with its nature in 
accomplishing or achieving results. The 
infinite and divine Love, by means of infinite 
and divine Wisdom, creates from Itself all 
things that are finite. There is no finite thing 
that came from nothing. All finite things 
have been created and they have been created 
from something. God alone is the original 
uncreated Substance. All other things are 
derivative. They have been created by God 
from Himself. 

THE INFINITE AND SELF EXIST- 
ENT REALITY, WHICH IS INFINITE 
SUBSTANCE, WHICH IS SELF 
EXISTENT LIFE, WHICH IS INFIN- 
ITE AND DIVINE LOVE AND WIS- 
DOM, IS IN ITSELF AN INFINITE 
UNIT. This means that God is an infinite 
PERSON. No conception of self existent 
Life is possible other than that it is a divine 
and infinite MAN. The PERSONALITY 
OF GOD is necessarily acknowledged in any 
true conception of infinite Life. 

If God is Love, What is the object and end 
of the Love which God is? (If God wants 
something, What is it that God wants?) 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 179 

First of all it would be that which would 
gratify the love or satisfy the desire. 

It is in the nature of unselfish love to give 
of or from itself to some worthy object which 
is other than itself. 

The object of God's love, that which God 
wants, is the human race composed of finite 
human beings. What human beings are has 
already been touched upon. God created finite 
man from Himself, to be other than Himself, 
and to be forever the worthy object, worthy of 
receiving from Him, throughout eternity, 
those things which it is of God's love to give 
from Himself to that which is other than 
Himself. 

Man is not only a rational being but he is 
endowed with spiritual freedom and with per- 
sonal responsibility. The meaning of these 
things have already been spoken of. Without 
them man would not be an image of his Cre- 
ator. Without them he would not be of a suf- 
ficiently high order of being, of such sig- 
nificance, as to return to God as his reciprocal 
response that which makes it worth while for 
God to create and preserve him. 

The human race is not limited to the men 
and women of this planet. If there are numer- 



l8o RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ous planets revolving around our sun, and if 

the million stars in the sky are as many solar 

suns with planets revolving around each one 

of them, and if suns and planets are created 

only to be instrumental in serving the needs 

of the human race, (as is the fact) then the 

people of our planet are comparatively few 

as compared with all who are being created. 

And then, again, if we consider that it is 

impossible for us to conceive of any time when 

suns and planets did not exist for the purpose 

of facilitating the creation of human beings, 

and impossible to conceive of any time in the 

future when they will cease to exist for the 

same purpose; and if we furthermore consider 

that all human beings are immortal, that all 

who ever were created are still alive, our idea 

of the human race is a large idea. ( !) It is 

this human race which is the worthy object 

which has been, is and will continue to be, 

something other than God, to which He can, 

to eternity, give that which it is of His love to 

give. 

The Divine Providence 

CREATION AND PRESERVATION 

are words that go together. God not only cre- 
ates but He preserves. Preservation is equiv- 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED l8l 

alent to continual creation. Creation implies 
and involves an object or purpose on the part 
of God. Preservation is for the fulfillment 
of that object or purpose. These and similar 
facts lead to a correct conception of the 
DIVINE PROVIDENCE. In creating 
from Himself the things of the finite realm, 
with an object or purpose, thereby employing 
means and methods, a personal interest by God 
in these things is self evident, 

The finite realm is God's work! 

It is His achievement! 

It is what He lives for! 

It is that which it is His nature to create! 

Therefore He is interested in it! 

Let us see to what extent He is interested in 
it. When we think of the creation of the sun 
and the world, and the millions of other suns 
and other worlds, and of the spaces between 
the suns and worlds in which there is no unoc- 
cupied space or vacuum; and then, again, 
when we think of the SPIRITUAL universe 
as the habitation of all men and women who 
ever lived on this and other planets, let us 
ask the question, How much effort or energy 
or force was required for such achievement? 
Whatever this energy was, It represents the 



182 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

force and power of God's love for the achieve- 
ment. In other words He loves it as much 
as it costs Him. To the extent that we can 
estimate the cost of creating the universe in 
terms of Human energy to that extent we can 
estimate God's love for the human race. Pres- 
ervation of the universe, or of all things cre- 
ated, requires the continuous activity of the 
same love energy that first created it. 

The conception of God as an infinite and 
divine MAN, engaged not only in works of 
new creation but also in the preservation of 
all former creations, is a correct conception of 
the operations of the Divine Providence. 

God not only creates finite things from 
Himself but, in so doing, He employs 
MEANS AND METHODS. He likewise 
employs means and methods in the preserva- 
tion of creations. He establishes order so per- 
fectly that every created thing becomes a 
means for serving His plan, and, on account 
of this, we say that everything is qualified 
to fill its function. 

All finite substances and forces and laws 
are instrumental agencies in the hands of God 
for accomplishing the ends which He has in 
Mind, and the one great end or purpose in 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 183 

the mind of God is to serve the needs of finite 
human beings both in this and the spiritual 
world. God knows what these needs are. 
God knows what is the best outcome to life 
that is possible, in the nature of things, for 
every human being; and, it is his purpose to 
render every assistance which any man will 
make use of to this end. 

To what extent does he employ means and 
methods in serving human needs? The 
answer is that no human need is so small but 
what the infinite God provides for it. In the 
preservation of his creations, to the end that 
His object in creation will be realized, God's 
personal interest is as keen in the minutest 
things as in the greatest and in all details as 
in the big generalities. 

In thinking of God's greatness we some- 
times wonder what He would condescend to 
do. The real question is not what He would 
condescend to do, but, Where can God serve 
a finite human need? He condescends to 
serve any need. No genuine human need is or 
ever was nor ever will be neglected by God. 
What human needs are has already been 
stated. 



184 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

And, again, in considering the means and 
methods employed by God in serving human 
needs, the real question is not what means 
and methods are of a rank such as can be 
employed by God with dignity. It is simply 
a question with God of employing such means 
and methods as are effective in serving human 
needs so that no minutest need will ever be 
neglected. 

Why is it that such infinite effort needs to 
be made in supplying the needs of finite men? 
Where is the complication or what is it in the 
nature of man which requires that God put 
forth such effort in his behalf? In spite of the 
fact that the Divine Providence makes pro- 
vision for even the most minute of all human 
needs, nevertheless, evil exists and some men 
turn out to be degenerates. Again our atten- 
tion is called to SPIRITUAL FREEDOM 
and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. A 
MAN CAN NOT BE A MAN WITH- 
OUT SPIRITUAL FREEDOM AND 
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. God 
wants men and nothing short of men as His 
achievement. All evil could be destroyed and 
the hells annihilated by destroying spiritual 
freedom and personal responsibility in men, 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED l8^ 

but this would be to destroy human nature 
itself. Therefore it is not a genuine need with 
any man that his spiritual freedom should be 
destroyed or his personal responsibility taken 
away. 

The Incarnation of God In Jesus Christ 

THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN 
JESUS CHRIST may be thought of, first of 
all, as means and methods employed by God 
for supplying certain human needs, which 
required that kind of conduct, so to speak, on 
the part of God. 

The infinite Human Energy which God is 
expending in the finite realm is represented 
by an infinite number of things which He is 
doing on behalf and in the interests of men. 
Creating suns and planets and intervening 
atmospheres, and then preserving them intact, 
and keeping them in their perpetual motion, 
represent a portion of God's activities. In ad- 
dition to these things God establishes certain 
personal relations between Himself, as the in- 
finite Unit, and finite man. His incarnation in 
the person of Jesus Christ is to be identified 
with His personal relations to men, by which, 
according to orderly means and methods, He 



186 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

reveals Himself to men, protects men from 
subconscious or psychic dangers, warms the 
effections of men and enlightens their under- 
standing by immediate influx and things of 
that kind. 

God's presence in the world in the person 
of Jesus Christ did not necessitate any change 
in His relative position as the Creator and 
Preserver of all things. He was the living 
soul in Jesus Christ exactly as He is the liv- 
ing soul in His written Word. "In the begin- 
ning was the Word, . . . and the Word 
WAS God." Jesus Christ was God in the 
same sense that the Bible is God. The finite 
human form of Jesus Christ was not infinite, 
neither is the finite literary composition of 
the Bible infinite. Infinite and divine truth, 
however, is within the finite literature of the 
Bible and this very soul of the Bible is God. 
And likewise the soul and inmost life of 
Jesus Christ was God. 

The idea of the finite is that of limitation 
whereas the idea of the infinite is that of the 
unlimited. All men must live their lives sub- 
ject to the limitations of their finite natures 
and their finite conditions and circumstances. 
Therefore, when the infinite Being descended 



RELIGION RATIONALIZED 1 87 

in the person of Jesus Christ, to act the part 
of Divinity in the realm of man's finite limita- 
tions, He subjected the activities of the 
assumed finite personality to the same limita- 
tions that all men are subject to. This means, 
practically speaking, that Jesus Christ acted 
under His finite conditions and circumstances 
exactly as the Divine Love and Wisdom would 
act under the same limited and restricted 
conditions and circumstances. In this way 
God Himself gives us a perfect example of 
what right living is for men. Thereby He 
revealed the standard of all values in human 
life. And thereby He furthermore revealed 
that He Himself is Human — Human in the 
infinite sense of the word. 

These observations, however, are only 
explanations and conceptions. What about 
the proof of them? The sufficient and indis- 
putable proof of the incarnation of God in 
Jesus Christ is in the divine revelation of 
God's Word, which enables us to see for our- 
selves that it is true. The external or literal 
sense of the Bible reveals spiritual light so 
obscurely, and is so susceptible of numerous 
interpretations, that it has led to misleading 
ideas as to who Jesus Christ is. Accord- 



188 RELIGION RATIONALIZED 

ing to some interpretations of the literal 
sense, Christ is thought of as as infinite 
Being, entirely distinct from God, who is 
thought of as another infinite Being. And, 
according to some interpretations, the Uni- 
tarian idea has developed which is that Christ 
exemplifies the same "spark of divinity" 
which all men may exemplify so far as any 
difference in their organic natures is con- 
cerned. The literal sense of the Word, how- 
ever, when interpreted in the light of true 
doctrine, coincides with THE INTERIOR 
OR SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE 
WORD WHICH CLEARLY AND 
LUCIDLY AND LUMINOUSLY 
BRINGS JESUS CHRIST TO LIGHT 
AS THE ONE AND ONLY LIVING 
GOD WHO IS THE CREATOR, PRE- 
SERVER AND SAVIOUR OF THE 
HUMAN RACE. The Bible, when inter- 
preted according to its interior or spirit- 
ual sense, reveals from the beginning to the 
end of its contents that God became incarnate 
in the person of Jesus Christ and that Jesus 
Christ is God. The final and incontrovertible 
proof of this fact can be found and can only 
be found in Divine Revelation. 






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